On June 30, the 17th plan of development for the North Slope Oooguruk unit was submitted to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas by unit operator Eni US Operating Co. Inc. on behalf of its affiliate Eni Petroleum US LLC, the owner of 100% working interest ownership in the near-shore Beaufort unit.
(See map in the online issue PDF)
Planned activities for the 17th POD, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2024, include a plan of exploration for lands not within a participating area, specifically Eni is looking at drilling two appraisal wells targeting the northern Nuiqsut reservoir. The wells, ERD-N01 and ERD-N02, are within the proven drilling radius of roughly 22,000 feet from the Oooguruk Drill site, or ODS, which is an offshore artificial gravel island just east of the Colville River in Harrison Bay, west of the central North Slope.
The primary objective is to test the oil's productivity and quality in several horizons on leases ADL-379301, ADL-389953 and ADL 389949.
Major capital projects during 17th POD period include the "installation of the Partial Gas Processing project to install 20 MMscfd gas processing and compression equipment" at the Oooguruk Tie-in pad. Engineering is complete and nine processing and pipe rack modules are currently in shop fabrication with selected modules planned to ship to Eni's Oooguruk transfer point in August.
All Oooguruk Tie-in pad installation activities are forecasted to be mechanically complete by August with project start-up and commissioning to follow. This project will mitigate gas processing constraints and reduce associated costs from ConocoPhillips Alaska's Kuparuk Central Processing Facility 3, or CPF-3.
Partial Gas Processing startup is scheduled for January 2024.
The Electrical Power Sharing, or EPS, project between Nikaitchuq and Oooguruk is progressing, Eni said in its POD.
Engineering is complete and preliminary procurement activities have been initiated. This will allow more robust and efficient power system sharing between the two development projects., Eni said.
EPS startup is scheduled for summer 2025.
Other facilities plans
As in past years, routine maintenance will be performed in Oooguruk facilities during the 17th POD period, including replacing worn piping and valves and general mechanical integrity inspections of piping and other safety systems.
Oooguruk will perform a minor 3-day turnaround during the 17th POD in the summer of 2024. This will allow the mechanical tie-ins for the Partial Gas Processing project to be installed and any opportunity to work in the same timeframe.
Eni's corporate operations team will perform a cold-eye review of the Oooguruk plant to identify bottlenecks, efficiencies, and production improvement opportunities. An internal corporate assessment will also be performed to ensure compliance with internal procedures on safety and environmental critical elements, Eni said.
Finally, conversion from the existing Siemens PCS7 Distributed Control System, or DCS, to Emerson DeltaV has been developed with a detailed engineering study supporting implementation during the 2024 maintenance turnaround.
Reservoir management
During the 17th POD period, Eni plans to further optimize Oooguruk's Kuparuk participating area waterflood and the Nuiqsut participating area under-saturated water-alternating-gas flood.
Due to capital constraints, however, plans have not been approved by Eni to complete the workovers in the Oooguruk Torok participating area. Consequently, no production or injection is anticipated during the plan period.
"All Oooguruk floods will be managed to maximize economic recovery and minimize project risks while maintaining the highest environmental and safety standards," the company said. "Individual well and pattern surveillance data will be collected in all reservoirs to monitor performance versus expectations. Simulation models will be updated to assist in reservoir and flood management decisions."
Drilling plans
During the 17th POD drilling activity is planned to restart in July-2024, targeting two new wells to be drilled in 2024 and fracture stimulated and put into production in 2025.
Specifically, Eni plans to complete the following:
* Rig will be warmed up in Q2-2024.
* Workover will be performed on disposal well ODSDW-44
* Drilling and completion of ODSN-05
* Drilling and completion of ODSN-09
Additional workovers are being considered, but the timing of these activities may change depending on funding and material availability, Eni said in its POD.
First Armstrong and Pioneer
The state of Alaska approved formation of the Oooguruk unit effective July 11, 2003, with operator Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska owning 70%t of the working interest in the unit and Bill Armstrong's Armstrong Alaska holding a 30% working interest.
Armstrong had initially developed a drilling plan for the area and brought Pioneer into the state as operator and majority owner of Oooguruk.
In 2005, Eni purchased all of Armstrong's interests on the North Slope, including the minority interest in Oooguruk.
In 2007, Eni formally announced its acquisition of Kerr-McGee's 70% interest in the Nikaitchuq prospect on April 11, giving the U.S. subsidiary of Italy's largest oil and gas company 100%working interest in the Alaska North Slope offshore oil field.
In the biggest step yet taken by an oil company in northern Alaska that didn't bear the name BP or ConocoPhillips, on June 9, 2008 Pioneer began producing and selling oil from the Oooguruk unit.
The Dallas-based independent was producing two pools, the shallower and smaller Kuparuk pool and the deeper and larger Nuiqsut pool.
The Oooguruk startup in 2008 marked the first North Slope oil production operated by an independent oil company.
In 2013 Pioneer sold all of its Alaska assets, including the Oooguruk oil field to Caelus Energy Alaska.
In early 2016 Caelus reduced its workforce by 25% and suspended drilling at the Oooguruk unit, postponing plans to develop the associated Nuna project. The move was in response to persistently low crude oil prices,
Those measures followed nearly a decade of growth and stability at Oooguruk.
As of mid-June 2016, Caelus and its predecessor Pioneer had drilled 43 wells at the Oooguruk unit. A third of those had been drilled within the last three years - five each during the seventh (June 2013 to August 2014), eighth (September 2014 to August 2015) and ninth (September 2015 to August 2016) plans of development.
Caelus did not do any drilling or workovers at Oooguruk under the 10th plan of development, which ran through August 2017.
In 2019 Eni entered into an agreement with Caelus to acquire 70% working interest and operatorship of Oooguruk, giving the Milan-based major a 100% working interest.
Unit background per POD
The POD does not include Armstrong and Pioneer's lengthy involvement in Oooguruk, although it does say the unit was formed effective July 11, 2003, with approximately 53,344 acres.
Effective July 1, 2019, several leases in the southern end of the unit were removed, and the area now stands at about 35,285 acres across 16 leases.
And the POD recognizes that on Aug. 1, 2019, Eni became the operator, succeeding Caelus.
Oil processing, leases
Oooguruk production is commingled on the surface and processed at the ConocoPhillips Alaska operated Kuparuk River unit.
Oooguruk production is delivered to the Oooguruk Tie-in Pad via a buried subsea flowline bundle and onshore flowlines, metered, then transferred to Kuparuk River unit facilities for final processing and transportation to the sales line.
Average Oooguruk oil production from Oct. 1, 2022, through May 31, 2023, was 6,812 barrels per day. Cumulative oil production from the Oooguruk unit is 48 million barrels through May 31.
The leases are unitized and developed jointly under the Oooguruk Unit Agreement terms between the working interest owner and the State of Alaska. Development drilling and operations are conducted under the Oooguruk Unit Operating Agreement terms.
DNR revised the unit's automatic 10-year contraction on Sept. 26, delaying unit contraction until Sept. 30, 2024.
Total wells drilled
According to the POD, "to date, 42 wells have been drilled and completed within the Oooguruk unit, including 27 Oooguruk Nuiqsut participating area development wells, five Oooguruk Kuparuk participating area development wells, three Oooguruk Torok participating area development wells, two ONPA-OKPA dual completion wells, one Class I & II disposal well and four other well completions outside of existing PAs."
