BP has announced plans to invest USD 1B over the next five years at its Alaskan operations for adding two new drilling rigs to its exploration of the North Slope. The London-headquartered explorer will issue a request for proposals beginning this summer for the two additional rigs in Prudhoe Bay. The first rig is expected to be in place by 2015 and the second in 2016, BP said.
The new pair will increase BP’s rig fleet in Alaska to nine.
BP’s new five-year plan will also see an increase in drilling and well-work activity as well as the upgrading of existing facilities. The British explorer said it expects to increase well work in the fourth quarter of 2013 in a bid to improve the performance of existing wells at the Prudhoe Bay and Milne Point fields.
Meanwhile, the company has said it has secured support from partners at Prudhoe Bay — ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron — to begin evaluating an additional USD 3B worth of new development projects. These projects in the western end of the Greater Prudhoe Bay Area would see the expansion and de-bottlenecking of existing facilities, constructing a new drilling pad and expanding existing pads. More than 110 new wells would be drilled under the plans, which are expected to take two to three years to appraise, engineer and permit.
BP put the investment decisions down to changes in Alaskan oil tax policy signed into law this month that removed a progressive tax instituted by former governor Sarah Palin in 2007.