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Eni plans summer seismic at Nikaitchuq Italian mega-major to shoot 3-D seismic across nearly 118 square miles of state waters in Beaufort Sea starting as early as July Eric Lidji Petroleum News
Hoping to learn more about the oil-bearing formations of its offshore Nikaitchuq unit, Eni Petroleum plans to shoot a 3-D seismic survey this summer in the Beaufort Sea.
The survey would cover nearly 118 square miles of state of Alaska waters north of Oliktok Point, encompassing Thetis, Spy and Leavitt islands, as well as the tip of Oliktok Point.
The Italian super-major Eni is in the middle of a $1.45 billion effort to bring Nikaitchuq online by the end of 2009, after sanctioning the field in late January. The project includes several offshore gravel islands and independent onshore production facilities – the first in Alaska’s Arctic not operated by BP or ConocoPhillips, and not owned by one of them or their Alaska partner, ExxonMobil.
PGS, the world’s third largest offshore seismic company, is scheduled to begin the survey as early as July, depending on ice and weather conditions in the Beaufort Sea.
PGS will conduct the survey using the ocean bottom cable/transition zone technique, where a pattern of cables laid on the ocean floor collects information about underground rock structures based upon sound waves from compressed air guns fired repeatedly through the water and into the earth.
For the Beaufort Sea survey, PGS will use two boats, the M/V Wiley Gunner and the M/V Little Joe, which will leap frog across the area, the first shooting seismic in one spot while the second travels to set up at the next spot. A third boat, the M/V William Bradley, will digitally receive and record the information.
Eni plans to use its existing facilities on Oliktok Point to house the 60 to 80-man work crew needed for the project, with temporary trailers set up as offices.
Survey in two parts The survey is designed to proceed in two phases.
Hoping to avoid marine wildlife, PGS first plans to shoot in the waters beyond the barrier islands by Aug. 5 and then move to the waters inside the islands, finishing the entire survey by Sept. 15, before the start of the fall bowhead whaling season.
The waters in the survey area get as deep as 65 feet, but nearly a third of the area is 10 feet deep or shallower. In filings with the state, PGS said it would lay the cable by hand in shallow water to lessen the damage to vegetation and the ocean floor, and would limit the air gun pulses to waters deeper than four feet.
The seismic survey requires permits from federal and state authorities and the North Slope Borough, which has issued a draft permit for the program. The state is taking comments on the project through May 27.
The companies said they have held public meetings in Barrow and Nuiqsut to gather community input in preparation for the survey.
Hope to avoid lawsuits By keeping the project within state waters, and meeting with community groups, Eni hopes to avoid the lawsuits that have recently plagued other companies trying to run seismic programs in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
Alaska Native groups and environmental non-profits sued the federal government earlier this month, saying government agencies issued permits for seismic activity without fully understanding how the acoustic signals used in the work affects marine wildlife.
The lawsuit covers work planned for waters far past the three-mile boundary line marking where state jurisdiction ends and federal jurisdiction begins. The Nikaitchuq seismic will be shot in only state waters.
Clayton Jernigan with Earthjustice, the nonprofit law firm that filed the suit, said his group is “aware” of and currently “evaluating” the work planned at Nikaitchuq this summer, but would not say if the nonprofit planned to file a similar suit against the state.
Nikaitchuq a tricky prospect The resources at Nikaitchuq are believed to be both valuable and difficult to develop.
Eni estimates the recoverable reserves at the field to be around 180 million barrels of oil, split between shallower heavy oil deposits in the Schrader Bluff formation and deeper light oil deposits in the Sag River formation.
To help Eni make the project economic over the long term, the state in mid-January modified the royalty rates on 12 leases in the Nikaitchuq unit, allowing the company to pay lower rates during periods of lower oil prices.
Eni plans to develop the field through a combination of onshore and offshore wells, and will build its own processing facilities.
Eni arrived in Alaska in 2005 when it bought the assets of Armstrong Alaska, including a share of the offshore leases that now comprise the Nikaitchuq unit. Eni acquired the remaining interest in those leases from Anadarko Petroleum in April 2007, after Anadarko purchased Kerr-McGee, which had been Armstrong’s partner and operator of the first wells in the field.
Eni also holds a 30 percent working interest in the offshore Oooguruk unit operated by Pioneer Natural Resources, as well as extensive acreage on and offshore the North Slope. Oooguruk is scheduled to come online in 2008. Its oil will be processed in an existing ConocoPhillips-operated facility within the Kuparuk River unit.
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