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November 2008

Vol. 13, No. 46 Week of November 16, 2008

Fiord Nechelik PA revision approved

ConocoPhillips expands participating area from 11,710 acres to 14,037 acres; two reservoirs at Fiord produce some 22,000 bpd

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

A revision of the Fiord Nechelik participating area at the Colville River unit on Alaska’s North Slope has been approved by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas.

Fiord, along with Nanuq and Qannik, is a satellite of the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Alpine field, the big field in the Colville River unit, the farthest west production on the North Slope. Fiord is northeast of the main field and is produced from a roadless pad, accessed by an ice road in the winter and year-round by air. Nanuq is south of Alpine, accessed by a gravel road from the field’s main facilities. Qannik is accessed from Alpine.

The Colville River unit is not connected to the North Slope road system. It is reached by ice road in the winter and year-round by air; oil is processed at the field and sales quality oil moves on the Alpine pipeline to a connection with the Kuparuk pipeline system, and from there to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline at Deadhorse.

Two Fiord participating areas

The Fiord Nechelik is one of two participating areas approved by the division at Fiord in September 2006, with an effective date of Aug. 1, 2006. Participating areas are the portions of a unit from which oil or gas is produced.

The original Fiord Nechelik participating area included all or portions of five State of Alaska leases and five leases held jointly by the state and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., some 11,710 acres. The revised participating area includes lands not included in the original participating area and excludes some lands in the original area; it is larger at some 14,037 acres.

The acreage removed is on the southwest edge of the participating area; the acreage added is primarily on the southeast, but also includes a smaller area on the northwest.

The division also approved an updated Colville River unit plan of development effective Nov. 1.

The Fiord Nechelik reservoir is in the Kingak formation; it is the deeper of the two reservoirs at Fiord. The Fiord Nechelik sandstone is defined as the interval correlative with the sandstone in the Fiord No. 5 well between 7,021 and 7,172 feet measured depth.

A portion of the Nechelik is overlain by the shallower Fiord Kuparuk sandstone, which is the interval correlative with and that occurs in the Fiord No. 5 well from 6,876 to 6,892 feet measured depth.

Production from the Fiord began in August 2006 and as of September the satellite had produced a total of 12.1 million barrels of oil. Alpine, the big field in the Colville River unit, produced 278.8 million barrels from the beginning of production in November 2000 through September. The combined production from the Fiord Nechelik and Kuparuk reservoirs was some 22,000 barrels per day in September, the most recent month for which the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has data available.






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