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State approves West Sak PA expansion
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas has approved the second expansion of the West Sak participating area within the Kuparuk River unit. West Sak is the shallower horizon at Kuparuk and produces heavier oil than the deeper Kuparuk reservoir for which the field is named.
ConocoPhillips Alaska, Kuparuk River operator, requested the expansion April 9. The division also required contraction of the Kuparuk River unit based on the findings and decision in the eighth expansion of the Kuparuk River unit in 2002.
The division said the 2002 expansion required ConocoPhillips to drill within expansion area 4 by June 1, 2004, and provided that expansion area 4 lands not included in the West Sak participating area (the area under production) by June 1, 2007, would contract from the unit on that date.
The drilling commitment was deferred to 2006 and the expansion area 4 leases, tracts 160 through 163, were each segregated into two tracts, A and B. The drilling commitment was deferred again in 2006; by April of this year ConocoPhillips had drilled six wells in the proposed expansion area.
In the April application for expansion of the participating area ConocoPhillips requested the inclusion of four leases (including three of the eight segregated tracts) in the participating area. The other five segregated tracts would be contracted from the unit. The contracted leases — on the Kuparuk River unit’s southeast corner — are beyond their primary terms and are not held by any participating area within the unit, the division said.
When ConocoPhillips filed its application for participating area expansion in April the division said there was insufficient data. ConocoPhillips provided more data, but the division said it “again requested the full data set,” and informed the company that without the necessary data it couldn’t continue to process the application.
On June 1, ConocoPhillips requested a 90-day extension of the automatic contraction; the division granted an extension until June 15. The division said it met with ConocoPhillips June 12 “to discuss the issues and concerns of both parties” and on June 15 the company submitted additional data.
The division’s decision is dated July 27.
Participating areas are producing areas State regulations require that a participating area be expanded to include acreage which data reasonably shows to be capable of producing hydrocarbons in paying quantities.
The division said the West Sak sands being produced within the Kuparuk River unit West Sak participating area “are part of the much larger shallow Upper Cretaceous reservoirs now undergoing development for production of North Slope ‘heavy oil’ in the KRU and the adjacent Milne Point, Prudhoe Bay and Nikaitchuq units.” The West Sak reservoir depth ranges from 2,700 feet true vertical depth in the southwestern Kuparuk River field area to approximately 3,800 feet tvd in the northeast. West Sak is “part of a large deltaic complex that also includes the Schrader Bluff sands,” the division said.
Ownership of the tracts is held 52.22 percent by ConocoPhillips Alaska, 37.02 percent by BP Exploration (Alaska), 4.95 percent by Union Oil Company of California (now owned by Chevron) and 5.8 percent by ExxonMobil Alaska Production.
Leases ADL 385175, 380062, 390706, 390707 and 390708 contracted from the Kuparuk River unit, effective June 1; leases ADL 390705, 380058, 385172 and 25663 are included in the West Sak participating area effective June 1.
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