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Greater Point McIntyre remains relevant Complex of Alaska North Slope fields averaged 26,220 barrels per day for year ended March 31; BP submits updated development plans Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Point McIntyre is one of several relatively obscure, but important, North Slope fields BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. operates in the neighborhood of famed giant Prudhoe Bay.
Like most of the Slope’s oil fields, Point McIntyre is declining. But BP is pursuing a vigorous program to maintain production.
During the year ended March 31, Point McIntyre averaged 16,950 barrels per day of crude oil, condensate and natural gas liquids, BP said. The field delivered a total of 6.27 million barrels to the trans-Alaska pipeline.
The area known as Greater Point McIntyre ties in a number of related fields, including Lisburne, Niakuk, Raven, West Beach and North Prudhoe Bay.
These ancillary fields averaged a combined 9,270 barrels for the year, pushing total average production from the Greater Point McIntyre area to 26,220 barrels per day.
BP holds a 26 percent ownership stake in the Greater Point McIntyre fields, with ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil each holding 36 percent and Chevron 2 percent.
On June 27, BP submitted new plans of development for the Greater Point McIntyre units to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
The Point McIntyre field Located seven miles north of Prudhoe Bay, the Point McIntyre field was discovered in 1988, and started production in 1993.
Point McIntyre contained an estimated 880 million barrels of oil in place. Production peaked in 1996 at 170,000 barrels per day, and the field has yielded more than 445 million barrels of crude so far, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission figures show.
“Point McIntyre is undergoing a tertiary recovery process involving alternating cycles of miscible gas injection and water injection that maximizes rate and recovery from the reservoir,” BP’s plan of development said.
The company, however, expects oil production to “continue to naturally decline from current rates due to increasing water cuts and gas-oil ratios.”
BP drilled two wells in April 2012, including the P2-51A sidetrack in the field’s northwest area, and the P2-39 grassroots well on the eastern side to replace the P2-32 well, which had a surface casing leak.
The company is evaluating more sidetrack opportunities, and assessing potential development opportunities in the west and northwest areas of the field “where rock quality is generally poor.”
“In addition, full-field model results may identify additional areas of bypassed oil that can be the target of infill drilling,” the development plan said.
Point McIntyre wells produce to the Lisburne Processing Center. Some Point McIntyre oil used to go to Gathering Center 1 in the Prudhoe Bay field, but that ended in November 2011 when a 36-inch pipeline was taken out of service due to external corrosion concerns. BP is weighing a possible repair project for the 10-mile line.
The Lisburne field The Lisburne field averaged 6,000 barrels a day of crude, condensate and NGLs for the year ended March 31, and delivered 2.2 million barrels to the trans-Alaska pipeline.
BP describes Lisburne as “a complex, fractured carbonate reservoir that lies underneath and adjacent to the main Ivishak reservoir at Prudhoe Bay.”
The field was discovered in 1968 along with the Prudhoe Bay field and came onstream in late 1986.
Lisburne contained an estimated 2.4 billion barrels of oil in place, and has produced nearly 163 million barrels of crude so far.
Lisburne produces from two reservoirs, the Wahoo and the Alapah. BP uses gas and seawater injection to enhance recovery. In March, the company converted three producer wells in the East Lisburne area to seawater injection.
BP says Lisburne is “gas constrained,” with wells exhibiting a high ratio of produced gas to produced oil. This means oil production rates are “influenced by seasonal ambient temperature cycles and corresponding compressor efficiencies that in turn drive oil offtake rates.”
Some Lisburne wells respond positively to periodic rest, BP says.
“Appropriate wells are rotated through a cycle of several days of production followed by days or weeks of shut-in,” the company says. When the wells are restarted, the gas-oil ratio generally is reduced, resulting in increased oil production.
BP said it is evaluating “potential drilling targets,” including injection wells.
Niakuk, Raven, W. Beach, N. Prudhoe The Niakuk field averaged 2,800 barrels per day of crude oil, condensate and NGLs, and delivered a total of nearly 1.04 million barrels to the trans-Alaska pipeline, BP said.
Niakuk is located offshore, but produces through the onshore Lisburne facility. Original oil in place was about 400 million barrels.
The field had average water production of 24,200 barrels per day through the year, BP said.
Reservoir management requires a sophisticated regime.
“The structural and stratigraphic complexity of the Niakuk reservoir precludes positioning injectors and producers in a uniform pattern,” BP said. “Emphasis is given to a dynamic reservoir management strategy. Elements of this strategy include selective perforation and profile modification to isolate water-bearing zones in production wells and to open unswept zones in injection wells. Production profiles are obtained, as needed, to better understand which zones are receiving pressure support and which zones are isolated.”
BP has no immediate plans to drill new wells at Niakuk.
The Raven field averaged 470 barrels of production per day, and delivered a total of 170,000 barrels to the trans-Alaska pipeline, BP said. Most Raven production comes from a single well, supported by a water injection well.
“The Raven producer, NK-38A, still performs well, therefore there are no plans to sidetrack it,” BP said.
Production has been suspended for several years at the West Beach and North Prudhoe Bay fields. West Beach has produced 3.37 million barrels of crude oil. North Prudhoe, with one well, has produced 2.1 million barrels of crude and condensate.
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