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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
January 2011

Vol. 16, No. 3 Week of January 16, 2011

Kuparuk well has gas kick; mud released

Doyon Drilling Inc.’s rig 15 had a gas kick while drilling at the Kuparuk River field on Alaska’s North Slope Jan. 9, resulting in some 45 barrels of mineral oil based drilling mud being released to a snow-covered gravel pad, snow-covered tundra, onto the wind walls and within the secondary containment area of the rig.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said in a situation report that the volume released was estimated by the rig crew based on the amount of make-up mud required to fill the bore hole.

The well, Kuparuk 2L-320, is a development well at the Tarn area on the western edge of Kuparuk.

DEC said ConocoPhillips Alaska, the field operator, was notified by Doyon. Alaska Clean Seas responders and trained volunteers from the Kuparuk Operations Center identified the spill area on the pad and tundra and mobilized other resources for cleanup response work.

Drilling progressing

Drilling is progressing on the well, ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Natalie Lowman told Petroleum News Jan. 11.

Lowman said some of the drilling mud sprayed onto snow cover on the tundra, but has been cleaned up off the snow and never actually hit tundra.

Well safety system and kill procedures worked just as expected, she said.

The well “was quickly controlled and shut-in and then we resumed drilling operations,” Lowman said.

The drilling mud spread over a 66- by 200-foot area of snow-covered tundra and a 200- by 300-foot area of the gravel pad along with the rig wind walls and cellar. DEC said spill response technicians used hand shovels and brooms to remove mud from the snow-covered tundra and stockpiled removal material for transport and disposal.

Drilling mud recovered from the rig’s secondary containment area will be recycled or transported offsite for disposal.

—Kristen Nelson






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