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Coyote exceeds
Well test results from Kuparuk prospect beat ConocoPhillips’ expectations
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
A ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. spokesperson told Petroleum News May 4 that well test results from its Coyote prospect west of the Kuparuk field were “very successful,” exceeding CPAI expectations and “providing key data to help us better understand the Coyote reservoir interval.”
The company had side-tracked an existing well at 3S drill site in the Greater Kuparuk Area to test the Coyote prospect, which had been identified from review of a 2015 3D seismic survey. CPAI got the well down at the end of 2021.
The company plans to drill a follow-up pair of wells (one producer, one injector) in the same area in Q4 2022 that “will enable us to gather other critical data to help us better plan for a future development of this reservoir from the 3S pad.”
CPAI officials have said that the primary Greater Kuparuk Area field development projects include Coyote, Nuna and Northeast West Sak.
Regarding the status of Nuna, the company told PN on May 4: “We continue to progress the project planning and approvals for the development at 3T, a planned future drill site where we plan to locate the Nuna development. It will be sited on the existing gravel pad within the Nuna acreage we acquired from Caelus. We plan to drill some wells in the same reservoir in the 3S area in Q3 2022 that will provide key learnings to help us further optimize the 3T development plans.”
The 2015 survey was part of CPAI’s agreement to purchase the Nuna discovery from Caelus. It was a high-quality survey that covered the majority of the Torok reservoir accumulation, the target of both developments. The Torok sits at about 4,500 feet in the area.
Pushing the envelope With improved drilling technology, in particular technology around horizontal drilling, CPAI has been working to contact more reservoir footage from a single well, which has led to a smaller footprint for each barrel of oil produced in the Greater Kuparuk Area.
The company, which is headed by Erec Isaacson, continues to push the envelope on how far it can drill in a given well. The longer it can drill, the fewer number of wells needed in total to recover the resource.
CPAI executive Lisa Bruner provided PN in a December interview with an example of pushing the envelope: “In 2018 we drilled one of our West Sak reservoirs called 1H NEWS. We only had four producers in that particular development, but we drilled a total of 127,936 feet, or 24 miles, of total lateral footage in four wells. We had low trouble time and really high efficiency so in terms of the number of days per foot drilled we made really significant progress. I would say with that development we pushed the boundaries of how much reservoir can be contacted with a single multilateral well.”
In 2015-16 the company drilled the Torok reservoir at Drill Site 3S, drilling a well pair and contacting more than 4,000 feet of reservoir in a single lateral.
In its latest well pair it contacted about 12,000 feet of reservoir from a lateral, so a 300% increase from well pair to well pair.
“We’re continuing to look for opportunities to push those lateral lengths even farther as we continue to develop the field,” Bruner said.
Kuparuk updates filed On May 2, CPAI’s Greater Kuparuk Area development manager filed the 2022 updates to the plans of development, or PODs, for the Kuparuk, Meltwater, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak participating areas, or PAs, within the Kuparuk River unit.
“As always, these plans are subject to change based upon business conditions,” Kuparuk unit operator CPAI told Derek Nottingham, director of Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas, in its filing.
The document was also the annual update to the Kuparuk River unit plan of development, as required by a letter dated April 11, 1986, from the Department of Natural Resources. The unit POD must be submitted by July 1 of each year for approval by Aug. 1.
The POD period runs from Aug. 1, 2022, through July 31, 2023.
The May 2 filing was done by CPAI on its behalf and on behalf of other KRU working interest owners, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc.
Kuparuk PA update Summarized below by CPAI are “notable activities” that were completed within the Kuparuk PA over the preceding year (Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021):
• Completion of well sidetrack into the Brookian-age Coyote reservoir from DS3S.
• Completion of six CTD wells beginning in Q4 of 2021 added approximately 0.14 MBOPD gross oil in 2021.
• Completion of six workovers adding 0.1MBOPD in 2021.
• Execution of non-rig wellwork activity added approximately 7.3 MBOPD gross oil in 2021 compared to 9 MBOPD in 2020.
• Successful conversion of OPL Pipeline from NGLs to fuel gas.
• Successful completion of water filtration trials at multiple drill sites in 2021.
In regard to Kuparuk base reservoir management, the company said it’s focused on “simultaneously optimizing the life cycle of the subsurface depletion processes of primary production, water flooding, miscible gas EOR, and immiscible gas.”
The company’s development drilling strategy is to target high value locations and to apply the appropriate well construction and completion technologies to minimize development drilling costs.
Existing wells that are currently shut-in due to mechanical problems or low production rates may be sidetracked to new bottom-hole locations.
As the field matures, horizontal, multilateral and coil tubing drilling, or CTD, sidetrack technologies “will play an increasing role” in the Kuparuk PA to access incremental resources at reduced cost.
Cost reductions and efficiencies will be “essential” to unlock the value of remaining Kuparuk resources, the company said.
During the plan period CPAI plans to maintain the current operation of a workover rig and a coil tubing drilling rig.
Rotary drilling is planned to resume in Q3 of 2022 “with an injector/producer pair in the Torok (Moraine) reservoir.”
CPAI said it “continues to monitor the two existing Torok (Moraine) horizontal producer/injector well pairs at DS-3S, to determine long-term deliverability and waterflood performance of the reservoir. This information is being used to characterize connectivity and to determine optimal inter-well spacing for future developments including the Torok (Moraine) wells planned during the plan period.”
CPAI intends to apply for a separate participating area for the Torok (Moraine) reservoir ahead of the 2023 Kuparuk River unit plan of development submission.
“In addition to the Torok (Moraine) planned wells, CPAI also plans to pursue a well pair within the Coyote reservoir and an additional Kuparuk target during the plan period,” the Kuparuk PA update said.
Editor’s note: To review the balance of CPAI’s May 2 PA updates, including West Sak, email Kay Cashman at [email protected] for a copy of the pdf.
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