In an 11 October 2019 interview, Richard Garrard, chief technical officer of Borealis Alaska Oil (rebranded from Nordaq Energy in June 2019), laid out the company's North Slope exploration plans. The company holds 100% interest in 70 leases covering 280,633 ac (1,136 sq km) in federal land in the National Petroleum Reserve â Alaska (NPR-A) and in state land to the east. Borealis is looking for a partner to share the costs and risks associated with the proposed work.  In the NPR-A, the company has identified six lower Nanushuk prospects analogous to the geologic setting of recent discoveries at the Pikka and Willow developments. Borealis refers to this area, located southwest of Willow, as the Castle Prospect Trend and is in the process of staking four drilling sites in the Castle North prospect. Tentative plans are to drill one, and perhaps two, wells to depths of about 4,000 ft (1,219 m) at Castle North during the 2020/2021 drilling season. This would be followed drilling at Castle East and Castle Central during the 2021/2022 season.Â  Those wells would be drilled to depths of about 4,800 ft (1463 m). A listing of Borealis' NPR-A leases can be found at the Bureau of Land Management website https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/OilandGas_Alaska_NPR-A_LeaseReport_September2019.pdf.  Borealis' leases on state land are located south of the Badami development, in what the company calls the Great Owl Prospect Trend. Like Badami, the prospective reservoir is the turbidite sands of the Canning formation. However, the company believes that the location of Great Owl is more advantageous to the development of thicker sands and more stacked reservoirs. Borealis would like to acquire 3D seismic before proceeding further.Â  Both TGS and SAE have recently conducted field studies in the area in preparation for possible seismic acquisition activity next winter. A map of Borealis' state leases can be found at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources website http://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Document/FBCC82E5A7B341E1804283B3AA8814FC/10-21-2019__North_Slope_Notification_Lessee_Map?.
Nordaq Energy Plc rebrands as Borealis Alaska and seeks partner for Castle and Great Owl exploration wells