Massive Beaufort plan
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JV reviewing program that could involve deepest well yet in Canadian Beaufort
Gary Park For Petroleum News
Imperial Oil, backed by its controlling shareholder ExxonMobil with BP Canada as a partner, is assembling one of the most comprehensive oil and natural gas exploration programs in Canadian history as it advances plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea.
A 455-page project description has been submitted to an Inuvialuit Environmental Impact Screening Committee for a joint venture drilling program that could involve the deepest offshore well yet drilled in the Arctic.
The proposal involves drilling one or more exploration wells about 75 miles northwest of the village of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Beaufort.
The plan is to drill on Exploration Licenses 476 (Ajurak) and 477 (Pokak) where water depths range from about 200 feet to 5,000 feet, with an independent consultant calculating the well depth could reach 34,000 feet.
Imperial and ExxonMobil secured their EL in 2008 for a pledge to spend C$585 million, while BP made a successful bid of C$1.18 billion for its EL, with the three companies forming their joint venture in 2010.
ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Statoil are also engaged in weighing exploration programs in the Beaufort.
Environmental challenge Imperial’s submission said the co-venturers believe their program can be “carried out in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” a claim that environmentalists are gearing up to challenge, based partly on Imperial’s admission that it would be unable to stop an accidental blowout by drilling a relief well within the short summer drilling season.
The proposal now faces a multi-layered screening process that is targeted at starting the two-year drilling program in 2020.
In 2008 and 2009, 3-D seismic programs were conducted by Imperial and BP and over the 2009-11 period the three companies undertook field data collection studies in collaboration with ArcticNet.
The submission said historical data “indicates that the period of manageable ice conditions in the proposed development area is on average about 120 days from May to November.”
Imperial said it would use Inuvialuit “expertise and traditional knowledge of the area, particularly their understanding of sea state, ice conditions and wildlife” to build that information into a safe and environmentally responsible program.
One or more wells The potential drilling schedule allows for one or more wells to be spudded in EL 477, assuming the joint venture can achieve a number of objectives including commitments in 2016-18 to a drilling system, including an array of ice-breaking support vessels.
If no further drilling is planned after the exploration well or wells once the two ELs have been drilled, the shore-based facility at Tuktoyaktuk could be returned to its pre-program condition and all remaining supplies, equipment and fuel would be shipped out of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region unless other arrangements were made.
The submission said the program design would draw on 90 years of experience by Imperial and ExxonMobil in working “safely and responsibly during drilling and production activities in the Arctic and global experience in operating in harsh offshore environments.”
Imperial reiterated that its “primary approach to well control is prevention.”
It said procedures would ensure that wells were “designed for the range of risk expected,” that equipment was inspected and maintained, operators were trained, tests and drills were conducted to verify personnel competence and that “adequate barriers and redundancy” were in place and tested to safely execute the work.
For the Beaufort, contingency plans would be developed for emergency response and oil spill response.
“Surface intervention would be the primary means of regaining well control and the fastest method to put in place,” the submission said. “Other effective same-well intervention methods including activating the subsea (blow-out preventer) stack, which is typically the first option for regaining well control.”
Drilling system evaluation The project description said a number of drilling systems are being evaluated, including jack-up rigs, moored semi-submersible drilling units and drillships.
For water depths and conditions likely to be experienced in the Beaufort, a “floating drilling unit is the system of choice.”
Imperial said a key requirement of any drilling system is its ability to maintain its position at the well site locations, using either a moored drilling system that has anchors attached to the seafloor or a dynamic position using a computer-controlled system to automatically maintain the drilling unit’s position and heading by using its own propellers and thrusters.
Whatever drilling system is selected, it will “use proven technologies appropriate for the most severe conditions that could be experienced,” the submission said.
Multiple vessels would support the program, including support and supply vessels, fuel tankers and an ice-strengthened wareship (which would serve as an alternative supply base for a remote operation), all of them powered by diesel engines burning low sulphur diesel.
Imperial said the drilling unit and support vessels could mobilize from either Vancouver or Prince Rupert on the British Columbia coast, or from a port on Canada’s East Coast via the Northwest Passage.
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