Hilcorp says Prudhoe drilling to increase
Hilcorp North Slope, the Prudhoe Bay unit operator, has submitted the July 2023 through June 2024 plan of development for the initial participating areas in the unit, including an increase in drilling, with as many as 38 wells planned.
This compares to the 2022 POD, which included as many as 11 new drill wells in the initial participating areas, IPA, with six drilled and another scheduled before the end of the 2022 POD, Hilcorp said in its March 31 POD submittal to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas.
"All the new wells are coil tubing drilling sidetracks," the company said.
Hilcorp operates Prudhoe on behalf of itself and the other working interest owners, ConocoPhillips Alaska, ExxonMobil Alaska Production and Chevron U.S.A.
The POD covers the gas cap and oil rim participating areas at Prudhoe.
Workover activity will be on an as needed basis, Hilcorp said, as it "has worked through the backlog of broken wells in the IPA and anticipates a reduction of this activity in the 2023 POD period."
Well intervention activity is expected to be flat, with focus on "maintaining the existing well stock and increasing existing production through non-rig rate enhancement work."
- KRISTEN NELSON
Middle Ground Shoal decision
Hilcorp Alaska has been evaluating what it will do at its Middle Ground Shoal unit in Cook Inlet for two years, since a fuel gas leak was discovered in April 2021 and the company shut-in production.
The fuel line required repair or replacement, and Hilcorp said in a plan of development for MGS filed with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas April 1 that it "has determined that the cost associated with repair and/or replacement of the MGSFGS (Middle Ground Shoal Fuel Gas System) is not presently economic as a stand-alone project and will not be pursued during the 2023 POD period."
In the POD, in addition to its determination that costs of repair or replacement of the fuel gas line were not economic, Hilcorp said it also determined that "Platform C has reached its economic limit and will not be returned to production."
The company said it will evaluate plans to plug and abandon wells at the platform and salvage viable production equipment during the period of this POD, July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.
Platform A, on the other hand, "has potential for future reactivation, but not as a stand-along project," Hilcorp said.
- KRISTEN NELSON
See full stories in April 9 issue of Petroleum News, available online Thursday, April 6, at www.petroleumnews.com.
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