Hilcorp Alaska has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for definition of a gas pool at its Granite Point field in Cook Inlet, and for pool rules for development of that gas pool.
AOGCC production data show the field currently produces primarily oil - in April, the most recent month for which production data is available, it accounted for some 26% of Cook Inlet oil production (an average of 2,244 barrels per day) and just 1.6% of Cook Inlet natural gas production (an average of 3,256 thousand cubic feet per day).
At a June 6 hearing Hilcorp representatives told the commission the company believes there is a sizeable gas accumulation at the proposed Granite Point gas pool, some 40-100 billion cubic feet of natural gas. This gas would be produced from the Bruce platform. AOGCC records show that cumulative production through April of this year is some 143.5 bcf from all three platforms at Granite Point, gas which is either used as fuel gas or shipped to market via the Kenai Beluga Pipe Line.
In a public notice for its June 6 public hearing on the request the commission said: "Pool rules typically define the vertical and map extent of a particular pool and establish rules that modify the statewide requirements to enable more efficient operations while providing an equally effective means of protecting underground freshwater, protecting correlative rights, and conducting safe and environmentally sound operations."
Bruce platform wells
Hilcorp is proposing that the gas pool at Granite Point be "defined as the accumulation of gas common to and which correlates with the accumulation" in the Granite Point 1 well (an exploration well drilled in 1965) between measured depths of 3,095 feet and 7,725 feet.
In its June 6 presentation to the commission, Hilcorp said it planned to develop the Granite Point gas pool from the Bruce platform, where slots are available for new grassroots wells. It told the commission Bruce platform is in good condition and said it planned to bring the Spartan 151 rig to the platform for the drilling, as there isn- t current a rig on the platform.
In its application to the commission, Hilcorp said it anticipates starting the drilling program this fall and said this was part of its "commitment to extend natural gas production from legacy offshore production facilities throughout Cook Inlet."
Because Granite Point was developed for oil, the company told the commission, data is not as good in the shallow section where gas is found and it plans to do as much data gathering as possible in drilling the new wells.
Three platforms
There are three platforms at Granite Point: Anna, Bruce and Granite Point, all installed in 1966. The Department of Natural Resources certified the Granite Point 1 as capable of producing in 1966.
Hilcorp acquired Chevron- s Cook Inlet assets in 2012.
The South Granite Point unit was formed in 1995. DNR approved formation of the South Granite Point sands participating area and the Hemlock participating area in 2008 and the South Granite Point unit contracted to the participating areas, with the remainder of the Granite Point field not unitized.
In 2014 Hilcorp as sole working interest owner of the Granite Point field and the South Granite Point unit requested an expansion of the unit to include three non-unitized leases associated with the Anna and Bruce platforms, an expansion approved by DNR in 2015, with a change in name to the Granite Point unit of the consolidated Granite Point field and South Granite Point unit.
AOGCC approved vertical alignment of the Middle Kenai and Granite Point oil pools, adjusted the affected area of the pools, eliminated interwell oil spacing and established a minimum set-back distance from exterior oil pool boundaries.
-KRISTEN NELSON
