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Kuparuk 2024-2025 development plan approved by State of Alaska
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
June 25 the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas notified ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. that the company's proposed 2024-25 plan of development for the Kuparuk River unit on the North Slope had been approved. The POD period runs from Aug. 1 through July 31, 2025.
The 2024-25 POD involves 17 new wells and a new drill site along with other facilities/infrastructure work.
Specifically, the company committed to drill eight wells in the proposed Torok participating area, six wells in the proposed Coyote participating area and three wells in the West Sak participating area with a new drill site, 3T, planned to accommodate both Torok (Moraine) and Coyote (Nanushuk) developments.
Two electronic submersible pump producers with multiphase flow meters and two injectors are also going to be installed to support 1H West Sak drilling.
To increase Coyote (Nanushuk) production, ConocoPhillips also plans to increase the capacity of Drill Site 3S through upgrading the water injection line, the produced oil line and production heaters.
Hydrocyclones will also be installed at Drill Site 1H during the summer of 2024 to clean produced water injection at the West Sak participating area, or PA.
Unit history The Kuparuk River unit was formed effective Dec. 1, 1981, and is located immediately west of the Prudhoe Bay unit and southwest of the Milne Point unit.
Today ConocoPhillips is the majority working interest owner at Kuparuk, with some 90%, while ExxonMobil Production Alaska and Chevron USA combined hold the remaining working interest.
The Kuparuk unit includes five PAs -- Kuparuk, Meltwater, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak. Currently, there are 958 active wells within the unit; "active" being defined by ConocoPhillips as having produced or injected fluid in calendar year 2023.
In calendar year 2023 (i.e., as of Dec. 31, 2023) the Kuparuk River unit in total produced an average rate of 79,700 barrels of oil per day, a decrease of 2.4% from the 2022 average rate of 81,700 bpd.
Cumulative oil production from the unit (including satellites) at year-end 2023 was 2.896 billion stock tank barrels of oil compared to 2.866 billion stock tank barrels of oil at year-end 2022.
The average natural gas production rate for 2023 was 126.3 million standard cubic feet per day, up from 124.1 million in 2022.
2023-24 POD Summarized below are notable activities that have been or will be completed by ConocoPhillips within the Kuparuk River unit over the current POD period covering Aug. 1, 2023, through July 31, 2024:
* Completion of 18 workovers in the Kuparuk PA as of May 2024, with eight more scheduled to be completed before July 31.
* Completion of four workover sidetrack opportunities in the Kuparuk PA.
* Drilling and completion of six rotary wells into the Torok (Moraine) reservoir from Drill Site 3S. Drill Site 3T will be complete by July 31, 2024.
* Drilling and completion of one Coyote (Nanushuk) well and drilling of a second Coyote (Nanushuk) well will be completed by July 31, 2024.
* Applied for two new participating areas for the Torok (Moraine) reservoir and the Coyote (Nanushuk) reservoir, respectively. (ConocoPhillips also applied to expand the Kuparuk River unit for purposes of forming the Coyote PA, and as part of that expansion application seeks inclusion of ADL 392374).
* Progressed plugging and abandonment at the Meltwater 2P participating area with two wells scheduled to be completed by July 31, 2024.
* Completion of two workovers in the Tarn PA.
* Completion of one workover in the Tabasco PA, with two more Tabasco PA workovers to be completed before July 31, 2024.
* Obtained DNR approval of the 3R0 participating area on Nov. 15, 2023.
* Drilling and completion of three West Sak wells will be completed by July 31, 2024.
* Completion of six workovers in the West Sak PAs, which include the West Sak PA, Northeast West Sak PA, 3RO PA and 1RG PA as of May 2024, with three more scheduled to be completed before July 31, 2024.
* Drilling and completion of one water source well in the Ugnu tract operation.
ConocoPhillips reported several variances from the operational commitments set out in the 2023-24 POD.
Specifically, although six injector wells were drilled as planned (3S-626, 3S-617, 3T-621, all within the Kuparuk PA Torok (Moraine) interval), 1C-156, 1C-157 (producer well), 1C-158 (all within the West Sak PA), five wells, according to ConocoPhillips, are "to be drilled in the future" within both the West Sak PA (1H-120 (injector), and 1-H107 (producer), and proposed Coyote PA (3S-723 (producer), 3S-703 (producer), and 3S-714 (injector)). The 1H-112 injector well was accelerated into the company's drilling plan, and drilled in the 2022-2023 POD period, and drilling of the 3S-611A in the West Sak PA was cancelled."
Production listed for the current 2023-24 POD period occurred during calendar year Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2023, and does not reflect operations (i.e., non-production) that occurred between Jan. 1, 2024, through the May 15, 2024, submittal of the proposed 2024-25 POD, or that may occur between May 2, 2024, and expiration of the current POD on July 31, 2024.
Furthermore, turnarounds are planned for both the Central Processing Facility 1 (primary separator inspection) and CPF 3 (fuel gas and pipeline tie-ins) during the summer of 2024.
Finally, ConocoPhillips plans to apply for expansion of the West Sak PA during the 2024-2025 POD period.
--KAY CASHMAN
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