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Nikaitchuq North not completed; Eni planning 2019 restart of well
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Eni US Operating Co. has not yet completed its Nikaitchuq North No. 1 exploration well. The continued drilling of the well has been suspended until early 2019.
“The NN01 exploration well was not completed in 2018 and as such no flow test was performed. Drilling was suspended on August 23 due to impending seasonal drilling restrictions. Eni intends to restart drilling in early 2019,” an Eni spokesperson has told Petroleum News.
Eni has been drilling the extended reach well, anticipated as the longest well of its type in Alaska, to test an oil prospect in the federal outer continental shelf of the Beaufort Sea, to the north of the Nikaitchuq field. The Nikaitchuq field lies in state land under nearshore waters of the Beaufort.
The Nikaitchuq North drilling has been taking place from an existing drill pad on Spy Island, a part of the Nikaitchuq field. The concept behind the drilling is to seek new oil reserves that can be developed in conjunction with the existing field. The Schrader Bluff formation that includes the reservoir for the Nikaitchuq field is known to extend a long way out under the Beaufort Sea, to the north.
Drilling rig Eni is using the Doyon Rig 15 for drilling the Nikaitchuq North well. The company has used the same rig for regular development drilling at Nikaitchuq but had to have the rig modified for the challenges of the extreme extended reach drilling required for Nikaitchuq North. And in the interests of environmental protection there are seasonal restrictions on the drilling - drilling only takes place during frozen ice conditions, and during the summer open water season.
Spudding of the NN01 well took place in late December 2017, with an original plan to complete the well in mid-February, potentially conducting flow testing between mid-February and mid-March. The plan also envisaged the potential drilling of a sidetrack to the main well. Eni’s plan has also anticipated the drilling of a second extended reach well, the NN02 well, depending on the results from the first well.
In the event, although the drilling of the NN01 well did progress, at some point the drilling was halted because of what Eni characterized as “unforeseen impacts to the drilling schedule.” The anticipated completion of the well was deferred to the summer of 2018. Completion and testing of the well has now been further delayed.
- ALAN BAILEY
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