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Pioneer tests its Cosmopolitan sidetrack Independent conducts workover of Hansen well in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, plans fracturing, possibly another Cosmo appraisal well by ’12 Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Pioneer Natural Resources recently completed a flow test on an appraisal well tapping its offshore Cosmopolitan unit in Alaska’s lower Cook Inlet.
The well, known as the Hansen 1A-L1, is a sidetrack to an earlier well drilled on Cosmopolitan, which takes in both federal and state leases off the coast of the Kenai Peninsula near the Anchor Point community.
Pioneer drilled the sidetrack in late 2007 and tested it at that time at a rate of 400 to 500 barrels of oil per day, Pioneer’s Anchorage spokesman, Tadd Owns, told Petroleum News.
Subsequently, a steep decline in oil prices and a weak economy prompted Pioneer to essentially shelve its Cosmopolitan project and defer the drilling of another appraisal well.
When oil prices improved late last year activity around Cosmo came back to life.
Test follows workover In early November, Pioneer sought permission from Alaska regulators to re-enter the Hansen 1A-L1 to conduct a workover. The job included locating and repairing a suspected casing leak.
The workover proceeded over several weeks, ending Jan. 16, Owens said.
Then came the flow test from Jan. 23-29, he said.
The test wasn’t expected to produce a different result from the 400-500 barrels yielded earlier, Owens said. Rather, he said, it was to see if the workover was successful.
Pioneer is now evaluating the results with an eye toward possibly going back in to fracture the well, with another production test to follow, Owens said.
Development decision pending Pioneer has not yet decided whether to develop Cosmopolitan, which has significant potential. The unit contains an estimated 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil, and a modest amount of natural gas.
Pennzoil discovered the oil accumulation in 1967 when it drilled two wells in the prospect — the discovery well, Starichkof State No. 1, penetrated a hydrocarbon-bearing section, and Starichkof State Unit No. 1, which was about 2.5 miles north of the first well. The reservoir was wet in the second well and the project was abandoned. The discovery well was suspended and was subsequently certified by the state as capable of production in paying quantities.
In 2001, ConocoPhillips’ predecessor in Alaska and its partner Forest Oil formed the Cosmopolitan unit.
ConocoPhillips operated the unit and drilled the original Hansen well prior to Pioneer’s takeover in 2006.
If developed, Pioneer most likely would use trucks to haul the crude about 60 miles north to the Tesoro refinery at Nikiski.
The Hansen 1A-L1 lateral was drilled from an onshore pad with Rowan rig 68. It was a significant achievement — the longest extended reach drilling or ERD well in the Cook Inlet basin.
In November, the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas approved changes to Pioneer’s fourth plan of exploration for the Cosmopolitan unit. As part of that approval, Pioneer committed to the Hansen 1A-L1 workover, and must progress toward an addition appraisal well with drilling to start by April 30, 2012.
Pioneer is a large independent exploration and production company based in Irving, Texas, with operations in the Lower 48 states, Tunisia and South Africa.
It operates the small Oooguruk field in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope.
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