|
Kuparuk development plan approved, includes drilling 1H NEWS Phase 2
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On July 6 Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas notified Jason Lyons at ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. that the company's proposed 2023-24 annual plan of development for the Kuparuk River unit has been approved, covering the period from Aug. 1 through July 31, 2024.
Although a single horizontal well, 3H-36, was drilled in Q2 2023, CPAI has no plans to drill additional wells in the Kuparuk participating area during the 2023-24 POD period.
The company still intends to apply for a separate participating area for the Torok (Moraine) reservoir.
Further, in addition to the Torok (Moraine) wells, CPAI plans to pursue continued development within the Coyote (Nanushuk) reservoir.
The wells drilled in the Kuparuk PA under the previous POD included the following:
--Two rotary wells into the Brooking-age Coyote (Nanushuk) reservoir from DS3S;
--Two rotary wells into the Torok (Moraine) reservoir from DS3S;
--Ten coiled tubing drilling wells in 2022 that added approximately 0.9 MBOPD in 2023; and
--Nineteen workovers that restored approximately 5.8 MBOPD in 2022.
Turnarounds are planned for the Central Processing Facility 1 and 3 in summer 2024.
The Meltwater PA is shut-in indefinitely, so there are no plans for it other than monitoring and inspection of drill site facilities until all wells can be plugged and abandoned and abandonment of all pipelines to and from the 2P drill site can be executed.
Currently, there are no plans for drilling activity within the Tarn PA during the 2023-24 POD period. CPAI, however, plans to maintain production from Tarn through operations ranging from using miscible injectant at Tarn targets with low enhance oil recovery maturity, or those targets that were developed after cessation in 2022 of natural gas liquid imports from the Prudhoe Bay unit, recompletion of wells by adding perforations, or through isolation of high water cut zones, consideration of fracking or refracking Tarn wells, and completion of a new full field model for long-term identification of potential drilling opportunities in the Tarn PA.
There are also no plans for drilling activity within the Tabasco PA during the 2023-24 POD period. CPAI nevertheless plans to maintain production from Tabasco.
West Sak activities During the 2023-24 POD period, CPAI plans to conduct the following operations in the West Sak PA:
--Resume rotary drilling within the WSAK PA beginning in Q2 2023 with core area development program at DS1C. This plan includes one water source well in the water leg of the Ugnu reservoir, one producer well and two injector wells;
--Begin drilling 1H NEWS (Northeast West Sak) Phase 2 in Q2 2024. This program will include two dual-lateral producers and two dual-lateral injector wells
--Evaluate additional viscous oil development opportunities in the West Sak including 3R Phase 2, DS3K and DS3N, and Eastern NEWS;
--Continue evaluation of West Sak wells for workovers, including artificial lift conversion from gas lift, or jet pump to rigless ESP, remediation of annular communication problems and reconfiguration of wellbores for future coiled tubing sidetracks (the sidetrack candidates are Kuparuk donor wells, which after drilling, will be converted to West Sak wells)
--Drilling a water source well into the water leg of the Ugnu reservoir from DS1C (to provide clean water injection to 5 existing DS1C West Sak injection wells); and
--Evaluation of potential solutions for sand control within West Sak.
--KAY CASHMAN
| 