Savant Alaska, a Glacier Oil and Gas company and operator of record, filed the 20th plan of development, or POD, for its eastern North Slope Badami unit with Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas on April 18. The POD period runs from July 16 to July 15, 2024. The POD was signed by Glacier COO David Pascal.
Savant wants to drill a Killian exploration well during the 2023-2024 ice road season, which Glacier says will prove-up the extensive Killian play beyond the participating area, or PA, at Badami and aid in securing capital for overall development.
Glacier is in a better position to accomplish these and other proposed activities in its 20th POD, as on Jan. 9 it announced that Pontem Energy and Sweat Equity Partners, or SEP, acquired 100% ownership in Glacier.
SEP President Andrew White said at the time that Glacier President Stephen Ratcliff’s team has a “clear strategy: to build Glacier into the preeminent Alaskan oil and gas operator, and I look forward to working with them to achieve their goals.”
Glacier owns and operates upstream and midstream assets in Alaska that produce approximately 2,500 barrels of oil per day in the North Slope at the Badami unit, in the Cook Inlet basin at the West McArthur River unit and off the Osprey Platform at the Redoubt unit.
Other proposed activities
In its decade overseeing the Badami unit, Savant has stabilized production with two successful development wells: B1-38 and the B1-07 Starfish well. With production averaging around 1,100 barrels per day a year ago it has since fallen, yielding an average of 504 bpd in February, partly due to a stuck fish in the B1-07 well that took the well offline in July 2022.
Badami production remains well below original estimates but is much healthier than the stop and start days of the turn of the century when BP Exploration (Alaska) was the operator.
During the 20th POD period Glacier intends to bring the B1-07 well back online. The company is currently engaged in a rig-based workover operation to retrieve and re-run the upper completion that is expected to bring the well online in May.
There was a previous attempt to work over the well in September. It was “abandoned due to catastrophic rig issues and timing of the barging season,” per the April 18 POD filing.
Glacier said it will continue to refine, characterize, and de-risk the prospects related to the Killian sands outside of the PA.
The company also said it “will engage in G&G evaluation of newly acquired acreage (1,280 acres south of the unit, 2,560 acres west of the unit, and 427 acres north of the unit).
Commingling reservoirs
Glacier said it will continue to evaluate the potential and viability of commingling reservoirs in B1-38. The company hopes to add perforations in the Brookian reservoir section to increase the overall production from the well.
B1-38 is currently producing from the Killian reservoir and commingling would require approval from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Glacier also said it will continue well and facility maintenance and optimization, and explore options to enhance production, as appropriate. This will also include improvements to the TEG system to dehydrate gas for fuel use.
Badami East Pad
Long-range proposed development activities for the unit, include plans to delineate all underlying oil or gas reservoirs, bring the reservoirs into production, and maintain and enhance production once established.
Glacier said it intends to continue exploration and development activities for the new Badami and Killian sand prospects, pending favorable economic conditions and the ability to raise capital at reasonable terms. This will include revisiting mapping and volumetrics for these prospects.
In the 20th POD period Glacier said it will continue compliance and engineering work related to infrastructure, tie-in, and additional processing requirements for the new Badami East Pad.
The Badami Main Pad houses the processing facilities, and the proposed Badami East Pad will serve as a satellite and tie-in to the Badami Main Pad, gathering production from new wells drilled from the new Badami East Pad. The viability of the East Pad will depend on securing approval for a multi-well program that will house the surface locations on the East Pad for ease of drilling.
Glacier initially intended to advance the project sooner as part of a multi-well drilling program in the Lion and Rhino Killian prospects. But given the uncertainty of economic conditions in 2020 and 2021, the company deferred the drilling, as well as the pad.
Miscellaneous plans
During the 20th POD period Glacier also plans to clean, coat and inspect onsite tanks, including the diesel fuel tank and the fire water/potable water tank.
The company will prepare and participate in the PHMSA audit on the Badami Oil Pipeline that will take place in third quarter.
Furthermore, Glacier is actively engaged with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in the renewal of the Right of Way, or ROW, leases for the Badami oil and gas pipelines. The process is expected to be completed toward the end of second quarter.
Drilling plans
Glacier intends to drill two Badami sand wells from the Badami Main Pad that are currently classified as PUDs, or proved undeveloped prospects, pending favorable economic conditions and the ability to raise capital at reasonable terms. This activity will take place after a second exploration well for the Killian is drilled at Badami.
Badami history
BP brought the eastern North Slope Badami oil field into production in 1998, with a processing facility capable of handling 38,500 barrels per day of oil.
Almost immediately, though, geology muddied BP’s expectations.
The reservoir at Badami was compartmentalized, making it difficult to develop in the usual manner. BP had to frequently suspend operations to let reservoir pressure recharge.
Taking a different approach, BP partnered with the small independent Savant Alaska in 2008 and then sold the field. Savant then became a subsidiary of Glacier.
For several years, Savant has been evaluating prospects in the Badami and Killian sands at the unit. The company has identified several prospects in these two sands. Of those prospects, three could be drilled from the existing Badami pad but the remainder would require construction of the Badami East Pad.
