Parnell has included $7 million for permitting and environmental analysis for a road to Umiat in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that would connect Umiat with the existing Dalton Highway, a state road that provides access to the producing North Slope oilfields from Interior Alaska.

Road construction, which would also be contingent on Renaissance proceeding with development on Umiat, would give year-round access to the remote Umiat field and nearby areas, which have high potential for gas discoveries.

The road could also serve as a pad for a buried pipeline, according to Mark Landt, vice president of lands for Renaissance Alaska LLC, the company planning the project. Calgary-based ARC Energy Fund is financing the program.

Umiat is on the Colville River on the southeast border of the 23 million acre NPR-A. The reserve was previously a petroleum reserve, and exploration sponsored by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s located a small oil field at Umiat. Production tests were done it was not economic to develop the field at the time.

What is unusual about the Umiat oil is its quality, at 37 degrees API gravity, company president Jim Watt said.

"The crude oil is so light that Navy crews working on early exploration were able to use it directly to fuel machinery without refining," he said.

Renaissance has acquired federal leases over 19,358 acres covering the deposit and conducted an 86-square-mile 3-D seismic program, as well as extensive analysis of well logs of 11 wells drilled by the Navy, Watt said. Based on that work the company believes 250 million barrels of oil can be produced from about 1 billion barrels of oil in place at production rates of 50,000 barrels per day, he said.

The reservoir being targeted is shallow, from depths of 200 to 1,500 feet, with the oil at between 500 feet and 1,200 feet, Watt said. Renaissance plans to develop the field with about 115 horizontal multi-lateral production wells with production assistance from electric submersible pumps.

Development of shallower and deeper producing horizons could add to reserves, Watt said. A deep test drilled by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1978 found gas, and even shallower reservoir intervals that lie above 500 feet, some even outcropping on the surface.

"There is no question the oil is there, and we have the benefit of extensive reservoir data from the Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey," Watt said.

There is already an airfield and support buildings at Umiat. The Navy originally built the airfield and camp facilities in the area. The state currently maintains and operates the airfield and UIC Corp., an Inupiat Eskimo village corporation headquartered in Barrow, owns and operates the camp.

Watt said Renaissance hopes to drill new test wells next year and to share the use of a rig with Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which plans to test a gas discovery at Gubik, about 11 miles away from Umiat.

A key part of Renaissance's development plan is to lay the pipeline in the gravel bed the state puts down for the road, and to not heat the oil beyond the minimum needed for it to flow, Watt said. The pour point for 37 degree API oil is as low as minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit, but the company would actually keep the oil at temperatures above that.

The pipeline would connect with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System at pump station 2, just south of Prudhoe Bay, Watt said.

State officials said having a discovered oil resource at Umiat has given them impetus to move ahead with plans for the road. A road would also benefit Anadarko's program to explore, and possibly develop gas resources in the area.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is the former Petroleum Reserve No. 4 created by President Warren Harding in 1923. No exploration was done until after World War II, when an extensive drilling program by the Navy resulted in the oil discovery at Umiat and discovery of small gas fields near Barrow, which now supply fuel to that Inupiat community. The federal government began commercial leasing in the reserve in the 1980s after it was redesignated as the NPR-A and transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Tim Bradner can be reached at

tim.bradner@alaskajournal.com.