Italian oil and gas company Eni has agreed to acquire a 70% stake in the Oooguruk oil field located offshore Alaska from Caelus Natural Resources Alaska for an undisclosed price.
Image: Oooguruk oil field located offshore Alaska. Photo: courtesy of Caelus Energy, LLC.
The firm already owns a 30% interest in the producing Oooguruk oil field, which is located in the Beaufort Sea, nearly 5km off the North Slope coast.
Eni will also take operatorship of the Alaskan oil field through the transaction which will be based on approval from authorities and on meeting of certain closing conditions.
The Oooguruk oil field, which began production in 2008, has a current gross production of about 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) through 25 producing wells and 15 gas/water injector wells.
Production facilities for the oil field were installed on an artificial gravel island, located in 1.5m of water depth.
The Oooguruk field is located about 13km from the Nikaitchuq oil field where Eni is the operator with 100% stake. In production since 2011, the Nikaitchuq oil field has a current production of around 18,000 bopd.
The Italian firm said that the additional 70% stake in the Oooguruk oil field will enable it to immediately boost its production in Alaska by nearly 7,000 bopd gross. Furthermore, the transaction will allow the company to implement key operational synergies and optimizations between the Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq oil fields, where it will hold operating stakes of 100% each.
Eni disclosed its intentions to undertake drilling of more production wells at the two Alaskan oil fields, with an aim to grow its total production in the US state to over 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed).
The company, in a statement, said: “This operation will also further strengthen Eni’s presence in the region, after the recent acquisition in August 2018 of 124 exploration leases (for a total of approximately 350,000 acres) located in the Eastern North Slope of Alaska.”
In December 2018, Eni made a gas discovery offshore Indonesia through the drilling of the Merakes East prospect in East Sepinggan block. Located offshore Kalimantan, the Merakes East Gas discovery is in proximity to the Merakes field, whose development plan investments were recently approved by the Indonesian government.