BP to do in-field exploration at Northstar

BP Exploration (Alaska) spokesman Daren Beaudo told the Anchorage Daily News that BP is planning a well this winter at Northstar, a well called Fido, in search of oil in a new geologic formation associated with the Northstar field.

Beaudo told Petroleum News that Fido is a step-out well to a different part of the reservoir that hasn’t been drilled yet. The target is based on seismic data, he said, and the target may or may not be producible.

Northstar is a BP-operated offshore field. It began production in November 2001 and in November 2006 produced 1.8 million barrels of oil from eight producing completions. Cumulative production from the field is 87.9 million barrels.

BP told the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in August 2001 that the field has additional oil potential, beyond the 176 million barrels of oil and natural gas liquids the company expects to recover from the 247 million barrels of oil in place. BP told the commission that additional reserve options include 7 million to 8 million barrels of oil in the northwest portion of the reservoir beyond the reach of current well technology, which the company said it believed is limited to 17,500 feet from the production island. The company also said that satellite oil accumulations may exist within expected drilling reach from the island, and told the commission those targets would be appraised. Northstar is an accumulation of hydrocarbons in the Ivishak, Shublik and Sag River formations some six miles offshore the Prudhoe Bay unit in both state and federal Beaufort Sea waters.

—Kristen Nelson