HOUSTON, April 25 (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips, which has putits Alaskan drilling plans on hold because of regulatoryuncertainty, will not drill exploration wells in the Chukchi Seaany sooner than 2015, the company's chief financial officer saidon Thursday.
"It's not going to be 2014, so what that really means is2015 at the earliest," Jeff Sheets, Conoco's CFO said in aninterview. "It's something we will continue to evaluate and willcontinue to try and understand what the requirements are goingto be to operate out there."
Earlier this month, Conoco said it would not be prudent toinvest in the Chukchi Sea now because of "evolving" federalregulations and permit standards.
Conoco's decision not to drill two exploration wells nextyear in the Chukchi Sea follows Royal Dutch Shell Plc's announcement in February that it would not drill in Alaska'sArctic seas this year after a 2012 season that culminated in thegrounding of its drillship in a storm.
Conoco, which reported first-quarter earnings earlier onThursday that met Wall Street expectations, is alsocontemplating a bigger investment in Alaska after that state'slegislators slashed oil production taxes.
"We are currently analyzing the possible impact to ourbusiness including where we could or would increase investmentin Alaska," Matt Fox, Conoco's head of exploration andproduction said on a conference call with analysts.
Conoco's current Alaska production fell nearly 8 percent inthe first quarter to 218,000 barrels oil equivalent per day, butnew work is planned for the North Slope.