ConocoPhillips Alaska has two units in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth. The units are adjacent, with Bear Tooth immediately to the west of GMT.
In plans filed with the federal Bureau of Land Management, the NPR-A landlord, ConocoPhillips outlined history and planned activities at the units.
The annual plan for GMT, filed last September, includes background and some work that company officials have discussed.
ConocoPhillips Alaska’s predecessor companies ARCO Alaska and later Phillips Alaska first drilled in the area beginning in 2000. Multiple exploration wells were drilled in the winters of 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004 and Greater Mooses Tooth was unitized in 2008.
A permit application for GMT1, the first pad in the unit, was filed in 2013 and additional exploration wells were drilled in 2014.
Production began from GMT1 in October 2018, with development drilling that year and in 2019.
Also in 2019 processing was completed on 810 square miles of seismic data, which included 480 square miles of 3D seismic acquired within GMT in 2017, and which was incorporated with other existing and acquired data to total 810 square miles.
ConocoPhillips told BLM the new seismic data set covers 88% of GMT and will be used to update the geologic, geophysical and reservoir engineering models to evaluate future opportunities at GMT, including GMT1, GMT2, exploration leads and other GMT prospects.
GMT2
Scott Jepsen, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s vice president of external affairs and transportation, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance in September 2019 that gravel was in place and being reworked for the GMT2 pad, the second in the unit, and an 8-mile road, along with preparation for pipeline installation, scheduled to begin in 2020, as will completion of module and fabrication work.
The company told BLM in its September 2019 plan that construction for GMT2 began in 2019 during the ice road season, with construction of a gravel road and gravel pads completed in Q1/Q2 2019 followed by early facility installation.
The GMT2 geologic, geophysical and reservoir engineering model is being updated “with new seismic data to assist in well planning and other activities such as Participating Area and Pool Rule applications,” the company said.
For the 2019-20 plan period, ConocoPhillips said that “facility engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation activities will continue into 2021 with first production expected in Q4 2021. The first phase of pipeline installation will be completed in Q1 2020.”
ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Natalie Lowman told Petroleum News in an Aug. 12 email she didn’t have an update on work completed at GMT2 over the winter but said GMT2 remains on track with first oil still scheduled for late 2021.
The company told BLM last year that GMT2 GGRE model updates would be complete in the first half of 2020, after which well planning and permitting would proceed prior to drilling startup in the second quarter of 2021.
The company has estimated production at 35,000-40,000 barrels per day from up to 48 wells.
Bear Tooth, immediately west of GMT, is the site of ConocoPhillips’ big Willow discovery, estimated to be capable of producing 130,000 barrels per day.
In a February 2020 plan for the Bear Tooth unit, ConocoPhillips told BLM that appraisal of the Willow discovery was advanced in 2019 with drilling of five wells (Tinmiaq 10, Tinmiaq 11, Tinmiaq 13, Tinmiaq 15 and Tinmiaq 16) and re-entry of the Tinmiaq 2 and Tinmiaq 9 wells.
“Four wells were flow tested with three (T9, T10, and T11) occurring in the Willow reservoir interval and one in the Falcon reservoir interval (T2).”
Injection tests were conducted in the T15 and T16 wells.
“As planned, the re-entry scope allowed CPAI to acquire more reservoir information without the need for additional wellbores,” the company said.
Interpretation of the 3D seismic acquired in 2017 continued “and was utilized along with the drilling and testing results to define potential additional appraisal drilling opportunities.”
The company had planned to drill up to four additional wells in Bear Tooth in the 2020 winter drilling season, but that drilling was cut short by concerns over the potential of COVID-19 and only two Tinmiaq wells, 18 and 20, were completed, along with a rank exploration well in the company’s Harpoon prospect southwest of Bear Tooth, Harpoon 2.
Matt Fox, ConocoPhillips executive vice president and COO, talked about Willow in the company’s April 30 first quarter earnings call.
He said Tinmiaq drilling results this winter were what was “expected” and said Willow development is on track.
“We’re working through Willow, and we’re in the concept selection stage just now. We have a timeline that would get us to the end of this year with the opportunity to select the concept. And by that, I mean, how big a facility do we build, how many drill centers do we have and so on,” Fox said.
