Buccaneer is the local subsidiary of an Australian independent. The company said it plans to drill up to four wells at its onshore Kenai Loop prospect, one well each at its onshore West Eagle and West Nicolai prospects, and one well each at its offshore Southern Cross and Northwest Cook Inlet prospects, company executives said in a call earlier this month.
Buccaneer also plans to shoot or acquire 3-D seismic at all three of its onshore prospects next year.
While weather and equipment could determine if the company can do all that work, finance director Dean Gallegos said the ability to get cost-effective financing at a time of volatile capital markets is "the key risk associated with the company going forward."
To fund its operations, Buccaneer is using a combination of sources, including revenue from its first productive well in Alaska, public and private financing and a recently announced line of credit that uses State of Alaska exploration tax credits as a guarantee.
The schedule is ambitious for any player, let alone a small independent, but Buccaneer has moved quickly since arriving in Alaska in early 2010, drilling two wells this year.
The first well, Kenai Loop No. 1, tested at an initial rate of 10 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. The company is currently installing associated pipelines and facilities and expects to bring the well online by the end of the year. The second well, Kenai Loop No. 3, was a dry hole, but Buccaneer is currently analyzing whether it can put the well to good use in the future. The company declined to discuss potential options yet.
It "was not, quite frankly, the results we had hoped for, but that's part of what we encounter in the oil and gas business," Burton said.
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