NEWS BULLETIN

June 11, 2019 --- Vol. 25, No.22June 2019

Hilcorp gets OK to install polymer injection facility on Milne's F-Pad

On June 10, Hilcorp Alaska received authorization from the state of Alaska to place a third polymer injection facility in the Milne Point unit, this time at F-pad. Near the Beaufort Sea coast, F-Pad is the farthest north of the North Slope unit's production pads.

Injecting polymer and water into the field has been more successful in coaxing the heavier oil from the reservoir than conventional waterflood, David Wilkins, Hilcorp's senior vice president for Alaska, said late last year.

Both J-Pad and Moose Pad (M-Pad, which came online in April), already have polymer injection facilities.

Using polymer, Wilkins said, Hilcorp expects to increase crude recovery from 10 to 15% of the oil in place at Milne to as much as 50%.

According to Division of Oil and Gas paperwork for the Milne plan of development's amendment, the scope of the project at F-Pad includes gravel expansion on the existing pad, an injection building, a high pressure water letdown building, a motor control center/utilities building and a polymer storage silo.

The injection of polymer will be used to increase production from existing wells MPF-106, MPF-108 and MPF-110.

Plan activities involve the following: excavating gravel from permitted sources; placing and spreading gravel on the tundra while working from the existing gravel pad and road (the new gravel is to be level with the current pad); putting 30 foot long 6-inch thick rig mats on the gravel pad; securing the portable modular units (injection building, high pressure water letdown building, the motor control center/utilities building and the polymer storage silo); installing self-standing exterior landings for module access; tying the new facility into existing above-ground utilities; installing approximately 200 feet of new piping on new supports to tie in three wells to the pump skid; connecting and installing electrical and instrumentation in the portable modular units; and putting in additional infrastructure and tie-ins as needed.

Milne produces mainly from the Kuparuk and Schrader Bluff reservoirs, some from Sag River, and will soon again be producing from the Ugnu.

In December, total Milne Point output was 21,075 barrels per day, with lighter oil and viscous oil production split almost exactly in half, but as the field ages, Wilkins said, more heavy oil will be extracted.

In April, total oil production averaged 25,260 bpd, up 17.7% from April 2018.

- KAY CASHMAN

See story in June 16 issue of Petroleum News, available online June 14 at www.PetroleumNews.com

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