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FEX to plug and abandon NPR-A wells
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
As it moves to sell its acreage in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, FEX LP is permitting a plug and abandonment plan for three NPR-A exploration wells it drilled in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The company said in applications filed with the State of Alaska that the three wells are on Bureau of Land Management land in Northwest NPR-A with a proposed access route partially on NPR-A and State of Alaska lands.
FEX, a subsidiary of Canada-based Talisman Energy, has three wells in suspended status near the Ikpikpuk River southeast of Barrow — Aklaqyaaq 1, Aklaq 2 and Aklaq 6. A fourth well, Amaguq 2, was plugged and abandoned in 2006.
FEX said the P&A program will occur in two phases, the first in the winter of 2010-11 consisting of permanent plugging and abandonment of the wells and the second in the summer of 2011 including final site cleanup and agency inspections for site clearance.
FEX said it plans to revisit the former well sites in 2012 to retrieve any material not previously detected.
Mobilization from Deadhorse FEX said it would mobilize the camp and P&A equipment from Deadhorse to Oliktok by truck to a staging area on sea ice at Oliktok Point. From Oliktok, off-road vehicles will pull the camp and skid sleighs with support equipment, with mobilization to begin in early January and continue until complete by April.
P&A activities are estimated to take 10 to 14 days at each well.
The wells were suspended, and FEX said the planned work will permanently P&A the wells, which are lined with cement casing plugged with cement and filled with kill-weight fluid. The kill-weight fluid will be removed and replaced with cement surface plugs.
The Aklaq 2 well, suspended as a Class II injection well, will be used as a disposal well for liquid P&A well wastes before final plugging.
Reclamation activities in the summer will consist of placing clean gravel in a mound at the wellhead to allow for subsidence and to avoid thermokarsting (localized thawing of ice-rich soil which would create a depression and eventual erosion).
Soil in the reclaimed area will be left loose to allow for natural seeding and revegetation as recommended by BLM.
Wells found pay Talisman Energy said in a March securities filing that it was putting its leases in NPR-A and in the foothills of the Brooks Range up for sale, ending what appeared to have been a successful initial exploration program.
FEX drilled in NPR-A and parent company Talisman said in May 2007 that three of its NPR-A exploration wells encountered hydrocarbon-bearing sandstones in several formations.
Wells drilled in 2006-07 included the Aklaqyaaq, Amaguq 2 and Aklaq 6; Aklaq 2 was drilled in the winter of 2005-06.
Of the three, one was deemed “subcommercial given current infrastructure,” the company said at the time.
The initial estimate for the other two wells was a resource of 300-400 million barrels net to FEX, which had a 60-80 percent working interest in the wells, with Petro-Canada’s Alaska subsidiary (now Suncor Energy) holding the remaining working interest. Talisman’s 2007 announcement was based on log analysis, the company said, and “strong gas and oil shows, including oil staining and free oil in the drilling mud in one of the wells.”
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