Eni’s Nikaitchuq hits 25,000 bpd

Eni has reached a production level of 25,000 barrels per day at its North Slope Nikaitchuq field.

The company said June 19 that it began production at the field, in which it has a 100 percent interest, in January 2011. Nikaitchuq is the first field operated by Eni in the Arctic.

And 25,000 bpd isn’t expected to be the field’s peak production.

“We are now working toward our new goal to reach 30,000 barrels per day in the next 12 months,” Federico Arisi Rota, Eni’s Houston-based executive vice president for the Americas, said in a statement. Rota said he is “confident we will reach this goal in the same way we have met earlier challenges.”

The last publicly available data for Nikaitchuq, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission volumes for April, show the field averaging just over 21,000 bpd.

The company said the horizontal wells at Nikaitchuq “are the most complex wells drilled by the industry to date in Alaska, with a lateral displacement that extends up to 22,000 feet.” Eni said the treatment plant at Nikaitchuq can handle 40,000 bpd of crude oil and up to 120,000 bpd of water.

Reserves at Nikaitchuq are estimated at 200 million barrels, the company said.

Eni holds interests in 100 leases in the North Slope, including Nikaitchuq and 30 percent of Oooguruk.

- Kristen Nelson