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Conoco requests vertical pool expansion
Asks Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for Qannik pool deepening in AIO to include Narwhal for EOR, addition of WAG flood
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
ConocoPhillips Alaska has asked the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for vertical expansion of the area injection order for the Qannik oil pool in the Colville River unit, and for addition of enriched gas injection via WAG, water-alternating-gas flood, in Narwhal reservoir wells.
The commission has tentatively scheduled a hearing for Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. in its Anchorage offices but said if a request for a hearing is not timely filed it may issue an order without a hearing. Call 907-793-1223 after Aug. 21 to learn if the hearing will be held.
ConocoPhillips is seeing an amendment to existing area injection order 35.
"The amendment seeks a vertical expansion of the injection interval approved within the Qannik Oil Pool," the company said in a July 17 application to AOGCC. "This would allow enhanced recovery to be performed within the Narwhal reservoir, maximizing recovery from existing and future development wells." The amendment also requests addition of enriched gas injectant, further enhancing recovery via WAG, water-alternating-gas flood, in Narwhal reservoir wells.
Pool previously expanded The company applied in 2020 to expand the vertical limits of the Qannik oil pool, AOGCC said in a July 20 administrative approval (see story in July 30 issue of Petroleum News). The commission said the Qannik oil pool is a Nanushuk reservoir, and extension of the vertical limits of the pool was approved in 2020. The recent administrative approval also limits the Qannik oil pool to leases controlled by ConocoPhillips, a reversal of the commission's 2020 decision, which granted the vertical extension requested by the company but denied an acreage contraction. The commission said its 2020 decision reflected its view that "a pool should ordinarily be defined by its geologic limits and not arbitrarily established property lines."
In its July decision, however, the commission said while all evidence points to the Qannik oil pool, the Narwhal reservoir, the Pikka unit and the Coyote reservoir in the Kuparuk River unit as "occurring in one broad geologic formation," a single pool across areas under development by multiple operators is "impractical as each operator may have somewhat different ideas about the best way to develop the Nanushuk Formation on their acreage."
The commission also noted that its regulations for area injection orders restrict AIOs to acreage controlled by a single operator.
Current request In its current request ConocoPhillips said that vertical expansion of area injection order 35 would allow injection into the Narwhal within the Qannik oil pool while addition of enriched gas injection would maximize hydrocarbon recovery from the reservoir.
The company said pilot water injection for up to two injectors into the Narwhal reservoir was previously authorized by the commission, and said production associated with that pilot project "is now within the QOP, and the pilot period is nearing conclusion."
ConocoPhillips said the requested expansion would match the Qannik oil pool expansion previously approved by the commission.
Narwhal reservoir development is currently from the CD4 drill pad, the company said, with the CD4-595 exploration well drilled in 2019 to gather information and the complementary CD4-594 injector drilled in December 2019 at which time the commission approved a pilot enhanced recovery injection order. The Qannik oil pool was vertically expanded in 2020.
"Planned development of the Narwhal reservoir from the CD4 drill pad includes four wells to be drilled in 2023/2024, two producers and two injectors, with future additional wells dependent upon drilling and production results," the company said.
The company is requesting that AIO 35 be amended to match the vertically expanded Qannik oil pool and modified to allow for water alternating gas injection in the Narwhal reservoir, with development of the Qannik reservoir to continue as waterflood only.
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