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First Point Thomson well reaches target ExxonMobil says drilling, casing is done on injector tapping gas reservoir a mile and a half offshore beneath the Beaufort Sea Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
ExxonMobil announced Feb. 8 it has successfully drilled and cased the first development well for its Point Thomson project on Alaska’s North Slope.
The well, PTU-15, reaches a measured depth of more than 16,000 feet. Nabors rig 27-E drilled from a land-based pad directionally beneath the Beaufort Sea to a target natural gas reservoir over a mile and a half offshore, ExxonMobil said.
“PTU-15 pushed the limits of drilling technology and demonstrated that the Point Thomson drilling plan is sound,” said ExxonMobil senior project manager Lee Bruce.
PTU-15 is an injector well ExxonMobil will use in a cycling project that involves bringing gas to the surface, collecting condensate, then shooting the dry gas back down into the reservoir.
The Nabors rig now will be moved to resume work on a partially drilled second hole, a producer well called PTU-16, ExxonMobil said.
The energy giant has pledged to the state that it will begin producing 10,000 barrels a day of gas liquids by year-end 2014.
The development is part of ExxonMobil’s legal and on-the-ground strategy to hang onto the Point Thomson unit and the underlying leases, which frustrated state officials have moved to invalidate for lack of production from Point Thomson since its discovery in 1977.
Challenging field The state has granted ExxonMobil and its partners permission to proceed with the drilling even though the fate of the unit remains at issue in court.
“We are ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the Department of Natural Resources to maintain the pace and momentum set by the more than 1,500 people and 150 companies that worked on the project over the past year,” said Dale Pittman, ExxonMobil’s Alaska production manager.
The Point Thomson field straddles the Beaufort Sea shoreline about 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay.
ExxonMobil says its development will be the highest-pressure gas cycling operation in the world. The condensate production will be shipped down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Over the years, the company has cited the high reservoir pressure, coupled with the lack of a North Slope gas pipeline, as reasons why no production has come yet from Point Thomson.
The field is estimated to hold 8 trillion cubic feet of gas — about a quarter of the Slope’s total gas reserves — with 200 million barrels of condensate.
Aside from the drilling and casing of the first well, ExxonMobil also said it has finished a 60-mile ice road from Endicott to Point Thomson for hauling heavy equipment and materials to the site.
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