Hilcorp Alaska has filed a development plan for the Liberty oil field with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM spokesman John Callahan has told Petroleum News. In November Hilcorp purchased a 50 percent interest in Liberty from BP and became field operator. The field is on the federal outer continental shelf of the Beaufort Sea, northeast of the Endicott field, off the central North Slope.
Over the course of several years BP had proposed various ways to develop Liberty and had eventually pursued a plan to develop the field using extended reach drilling from an existing island at the Endicott field. However, the company suspended the project in 2012. BOEM subsequently gave BP until the end of 2014 to file a new Liberty plan.
Callahan said Hilcorp's new development plan for the field involves the construction of an artificial gravel island, rather like the Northstar field, also in the Beaufort Sea.
Hilcorp spokeswoman Lori Nelson told Petroleum News today that Hilcorp has decided to move its plan for Liberty through the regulatory process but that the company has not yet decided on whether to proceed with developing the field.
"We've agreed to walk it through the regulatory process," Nelson said.
- Alan Bailey
See story in Jan. 11 issue, available online Friday, Jan. 9 at www.PetroleumNews.com
