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Pioneer scales back Oooguruk production Delay in water supply for enhanced oil recovery forces reduced production, but company says annual targets should still be met Eric Lidji Petroleum News
Pioneer Natural Resources scaled back production at the Oooguruk unit earlier this year because of delays connected with getting a water source for enhanced oil recovery.
But Pioneer does not expect the delay to notably change the overall annual production estimates for the North Slope unit, according to company spokesman Tadd Owens.
“Production has been reduced in the near term but — based on our current water injection plan — the impact for the year should not be material,” Owens said in an e-mail.
In April 2008, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved the use of several sources for the injection, including water from the nearby Kuparuk River unit.
AOGCC approves the sources of water used for enhanced oil recovery to make sure the water will be compatible with the geology of the reservoir it is being injected into.
However, according to AOGCC, “due to circumstances beyond Pioneer’s control,” the approved water sources “will not be available for at least several additional weeks.”
ConocoPhillips cited maintenance work as the cause of the delay.
“The line that will deliver water to Pioneer was shut down for repairs and the water supply will be available in the next month,” Natalie Lowman, spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in an e-mail to Petroleum news on March 25.
Pioneer said simulations suggested the company couldn’t afford to wait. The company told AOGCC “that delaying water injection will adversely impact reservoir pressure and the producing gas-oil ratio and this could reduce the near- and long-term recovery of hydrocarbons” from the two oil pools that make up the offshore Oooguruk unit.
Pioneer brought Oooguruk online last June, but quickly suspended production because of maintenance work at a Kuparuk facility owned by ConocoPhillips and used by Pioneer.
In early February, Pioneer increased the resources estimate at Oooguruk by 40 percent.
New water sources approved In a pair of rulings on March 13 and March 20, AOGCC expanded the list of allowable water sources for injection into the Oooguruk-Kuparuk and Oooguruk-Nuiqsut pools.
“In the meantime, production from Oooguruk is being managed to ensure appropriate reservoir pressure and gas-to-oil ratios in our producing wells,” Owens told Petroleum News in a March 19 e-mail. “Actively managing our wells in this manner will allow us to maximize overall recovery of the resource from Oooguruk.”
Pioneer requested use of three additional water sources, two of which it described as being either “essentially the same” or “very similar” to already approved water sources.
The third source has more “dissolved solids” and is “more saline” than other approved sources, but Pioneer said simulations indicated the water would not damage the reservoir.
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