BP continues its heavy oil research

BP is moving into the next phase of its research into the development of North Slope heavy oil, a form of oil with a consistency of chocolate syrup, not producible by conventional means and with a wellhead value perhaps $8 to $15 below that of conventional crude, Mike Utsler, BP senior vice president for greater Prudhoe Bay, told Petroleum News June 9.

In September 2008 BP successfully demonstrated the production of heavy oil from the Ugnu formation at Milne Point S-Pad on Alaska’s North Slope, with a technique called cold heavy oil production with sand, or CHOPS, involving the use of a downhole pump with an augur-like rotor sucking a mixture of sand and oil up a vertical production well, with the oil being separated from the sand at the surface.

This initial production test did not demonstrate that heavy oil could be produced viably: Viable production would require high production rates combined with acceptable production costs, perhaps involving the use of horizontal wells and new designs of processing facilities.

Specialized production facilities for further tests of heavy oil production have been under construction in Anchorage, and BP has drilled a horizontal well at Milne Point for the testing, Utsler said. BP wants to test the feasibility of sustained production from a horizontal well and to test two other types of well completion he said.

“The next well testing of the horizontal CHOPS well is being planned for this September,” Utsler said. “The facilities are in construction in various parts of the town and will be shipped to the slope between July and August, with then a long-term test of the horizontal heavy oil well planned for September (and) over the (following) six to nine months.”

Heavy oil would have to be mixed with light oil for shipment down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, and there is an estimated 20 billion barrels of heavy oil in place under the North Slope.

“It’s an unproven technology, but we remain encouraged by our preliminary results,” Utsler said.

—Alan Bailey