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Drilling is perking up
Sharp uptick in Alaska development drilling relative to previous couple of years
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
After a lull of a couple of years as a consequence of the COVID pandemic, oilfield development drilling on the North Slope and in the Cook Inlet region picked up significantly in 2022, according to data available on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission website.
On the North Slope the number of development wells completed had dropped from 89 in 2018 and 91 in 2019 to 39 in 2020 and 26 in 2021. However, the total jumped to 71 in 2022. In the Cook Inlet region 21 wells were drilled in 2018, 14 in 2019, 10 in 2020, nine in 2021 and 19 in 2022.
(See chart in the online issue PDF)
North Slope development drilling ConocoPhillips and Hilcorp Alaska dominated the 2022 drilling statistics for the North Slope.
ConocoPhillips completed 29 development wells in the Kuparuk River unit, one development well in the Colville River unit and five development wells in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit. One of the Kuparuk River wells targeted Torok oil in the company- s Nuna development, while the remainder targeted Kuparuk River oil.
The Colville River unit well targeted the Narwhal oil pool, a discovery analogous to the nearby Pikka discovery in the Nanushuk formation. The Greater Mooses Tooth wells targeted the Rendezvous oil pool, which has been producing oil since December 2021.
Hilcorp drilled 26 wells in the Prudhoe Bay unit and six wells in the Milne Point unit.
Several of the Prudhoe Bay wells were located in what is referred to as the Western Satellites area, an area that has become a focus of Hilcorp- s efforts to sustain production from the unit. Within the Western Satellites the company completed two wells in the Aurora Satellite, four in Borealis, two in Polaris, and five in the Schrader Bluff formation in the Orion Satellite. Hilcorp has been pioneering the use of polymer to elevate production of the relatively viscous Schrader Bluff oil, both in the Prudhoe Bay unit and in the Milne Point unit.
Hilcorp also completed four development wells in the Prudhoe oil pool in the field- s Initial Participating Area. And the company completed four wells in the Lisburne reservoir and three wells in the Point McIntyre oil pool in the Greater Point McIntyre participating area, in the eastern part of the unit.
The company completed six wells in the Milne Point unit, with five of the wells targeting Schrader Bluff oil and one targeting Kuparuk River oil.
Eni US Operating Co., the only other company to complete North Slope development wells in 2022, completed six wells targeting Schrader Bluff oil in the company- s Nikaitchuq field.
Injection wells In 2022 31 injection wells were completed on the North Slope. That compares with 34 injection wells in 2018, 29 in 2019, 24 in 2020 and 18 in 2021.
ConocoPhillips drilled 15 of the wells completed in 2022, 10 of these in the Kuparuk River unit, three in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit and two in the Colville River unit. One of the Kuparuk River unit wells was in the Nuna development. Apart from one of the Colville River unit wells, which was a waste disposal well, all of the ConocoPhillips wells were designed for the injection of water or water and gas for enhanced oil recovery.
Hilcorp drilled eight injection wells in the Prudhoe Bay field and six injection wells in the Milne Point field. These were all designed for enhanced oil recovery through the injection of water and gas.
Eni drilled two water injection wells for enhanced oil recovery in its Nikaitchuq field.
North Slope exploration drilling In 2022 seven exploration wells were completed on the North Slope. That compares with nine in 2018, 15 in 2019, seven in 2020 and three in 2021.
Four of the wells drilled in 2022 were drilled by Great Bear Pantheon. The company completed the Alkaid 2 well in its Alkaid discovery, together with a near vertical pilot hole for that well. The company also drilled a pilot hole in its Talitha prospect and drilled its Theta West 1 exploration well. All of these wells were drilled near the Dalton Highway, south of Prudhoe Bay.
Emerald House, a subsidiary of 88 Energy, completed its Merlin 2 well, a part of the company- s Project Peregrine, seeking oil in the Nanushuk formation in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, north of Umiat.
The two other wells classified as exploration wells were drilled by ASRC Consulting and Environmental Services in conjunction with an international project to test the production of natural gas from subsurface methane hydrate deposits in the Prudhoe Bay unit.
Cook Inlet development drilling In the Cook Inlet region all of the development wells completed in 2022 were drilled by Hilcorp Alaska, the main oil and gas producer in the region. The wells were all gas wells, with five of the wells being drilled in the North Cook Inlet field from the Tyonek offshore platform. Four wells were drilled in the Beluga gas field on the northwest side of the Cook Inlet; three in the Ninilchik gas field on the east side of the inlet; two in the Beaver Creek field in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on the Kenai Peninsula; one in the Deep Creek field in the southern Kenai Peninsula; one in the Ivan River field on the northwest side of the Cook Inlet; two in the Kenai gas field on the west coast of the Kenai Peninsula; and one in the Swanson River field in the northern Kenai Peninsula.
No injection wells were drilled in the Cook Inlet region in 2022 -- only a couple of injection wells have been drilled in the region in the last five years.
Cook Inlet exploration In 2022 the Cook Inlet region saw the completion of 21 exploration wells. The majority of these wells were stratigraphic test wells, with all of the wells being drilled by Hilcorp Alaska. That compares with one exploration well in 2018, five in 2019, eight in 2020 and two in 2021.
The development of new gas resources is becoming a critical issue in the Cook Inlet region, given the possibility of shortages of Cook Inlet gas for local gas and power utilities in a few years time.
Three of the exploration wells that Hilcorp drilled in 2022 were testing the Pearl prospect at the southern end of the Ninilchik unit. The company has since filed an application with Alaska- s Division of Oil and Gas to extend the unit to establish a Pearl participating area.
One well was testing the Whiskey Gulch prospect in the Anchor Point region of the southern Kenai Peninsula -- Hilcorp has previously drilled an exploration well and multiple stratigraphic test wells at Whiskey Gulch. And one well, classified as an exploration well, was drilled in the Beluga River field to test sands at depths below 7,000 feet -- this well was later converted to a production well accessing an established Beluga sand reservoir.
The remainder of the wells were all stratigraphic test wells, used to evaluate potential gas resources. Of these wells, 10 were completed in the Cottonfield prospect, in the southern Kenai Peninsula, east of the Cosmopolitan unit. Six were completed in the Happy Creek prospect, south of Ninilchik.
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