Hilcorp adds more wells to its 2025 POD for Milne Point unit

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Hilcorp Alaska has added six grassroots wells to its 2025 plan of development for the Milne Point unit on the North Slope. In the original POD, filed in October, the company said its anticipated drilling at Milne Point included 19 wells: 18 Schrader Bluff wells, nine producers and nine injectors, and one Kuparuk formation producer.

In December Hilcorp received approval from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas to amend the unit plan of operations by adding up to 10 new grassroots wells and associated infrastructure at the Milne Point J Pad. Doyon 14 was scheduled to drill the wells, all within existing wells rows. Associated infrastructure for the project included headers, conductors, piping and thermosiphons, along with heat trace, power and instrumentation cables, with all work to be done within the existing J Pad footprint.

On Feb. 25 the division approved the most recent amendment of the unit plan of operations for six additional wells at the Milne Point unit E Pad.

The division said Hilcorp planned to use the Doyon 14 Rig for the wells; the company also planned to install associated infrastructure -- facility piping, electrical lines and instrumentation lines -- which will tie into existing infrastructure.

Space constraints on the pad mean "some rig support equipment and materials such as dry mud product, cementing equipment, support vehicles, and rig components may be staged on nearby pads," the division said.

Well conductors were scheduled to be installed in February and drilling to begin in March.

--KRISTEN NELSON