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Remote but successfulConocoPhillips’ CD5 drill site ramps up oil production in the eastern NPR-A ALAN BAILEY Petroleum News
At five below, with a wind chill of minus 32 F, and with the Arctic haze in the sky merging with the white snow and ice covering the ground, ConocoPhillips’ new CD5 drill site appears from a distance as a faint outline in the middle of seemingly endless miles of frozen tundra. But, seen more closely, the new drill site, which came on line in October with the first ever oil production from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, is a complex of industrial equipment and pipework, with production ramping up as an initial drilling program at the site moves forward.
CD5 is now the westernmost producing drill site in the ConocoPhillips-operated Colville River unit, in the area of the Colville River delta, to the west of the central North Slope.
The winter ice road A media tour of CD5 on Feb. 9 involved a drive along a 25-mile ice road, west from the Kuparuk River unit to the central processing facility for the Alpine field. The Alpine facility, on the first drill site constructed in the Colville River unit, was built without a permanent road connection to the central North Slope. The roadless design, coupled with a relatively small gravel drill site, minimizes the environmental impact of the development.
James Brodie, ConocoPhillips capital projects manager for NPR-A, explained that when the ice road melts during the summer, all trace of the road disappears. The road costs about $20 million to build each year, he said. The road route, elevated slightly above the surrounding tundra, is marked by a series of vertical posts, designed to ensure that no vehicle loses its way when traveling the route in poor visibility. At one point, the road crosses a 4,000-foot ice bridge, constructed across a channel of the Colville River. Brodie said that the ice of the bridge is about 11 feet thick and that water continues to flow under the ice, even in the depths of the winter.
Although an airstrip at the Alpine facility enables air transportation to and from the facility during the summer, the winter ice road enables the transportation of heavy equipment such as drilling rigs, essential for field development and maintenance.
Gravel road to drill site A six-mile gravel road now connects the Alpine central facility to the new CD5 drill site to the west. The road crosses several bridges across channels of the Colville River, including a 1,405-foot span across the river’s Nigliq channel. As part of the permitting for the CD5 development, the question of having permanent road access to the drill site, the siting of the road, as well as questions around the need for and siting of the Nigliq channel bridge, all proved contentious and resulted in significant delays in obtaining government approval for the CD5 development.
Brodie said that a gravel road connection between CD5 and the Alpine central processing facility is critical to safety because emergency response equipment is located at the central facility. The ability to effectively respond to an emergency situation requires a road connection, he said.
Four pipelines, running parallel to the road, carry water and natural gas to CD5, for oil production use, and carry produced fluids from the drill site to the Alpine central facility for processing. Processed crude oil, mixed with other crude from the various Colville Delta unit drill sites, is transported by pipeline to pump station 1 of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, for shipment south to market.
Local concerns Villagers from the nearby community of Nuiqsut have worried about potential impacts of the development on the subsistence resources that the community depends on - one group of villagers unsuccessfully sued the U.S Army Corps of Engineers against its permit for the development. Negotiations between the village community and ConocoPhillips resulted in a mutually agreed Nigliq bridge location that addresses the community subsistence concerns while also meeting the oil company's needs. Project features designed to minimize caribou disturbance include low reflectance paint on the pipelines and adequate spacing between the pipeline and the road.
Drilling progresses Towering over the CD5 drill site is the derrick of the Doyon No. 19 drilling rig. At the time of the media tour the rig was engaged in the drilling of the ninth of the 15 wells that ConocoPhillips plans for the initial development at the site. It should take about 150 days to drill the remainder of the wells, with production from CD-5 peaking in the first quarter of 2017, Brodie said.
Wells are horizontal within the subsurface oil reservoir, with water and gas being alternately injected from injection wells for enhanced oil recovery. The drill site has been sized for the drilling of up to 33 wells.
Each well is connected into a lattice of pipework that connects to the pipelines that parallel the road to the Alpine central processing facility.
Successful project Brodie commented that CD5 has proved to be a particularly successful venture for ConocoPhillips, with startup being delivered two months ahead of schedule and some 7 percent under estimated cost. The wells drilled so far have proved better than expected, he said.
With CD5 production coming on line in the fourth quarter of 2015, that year saw the first year-on-year production growth from Alpine since 2006, Brodie said. ConocoPhillips has said that it anticipates peak production of about 16,000 barrels per day from CD5.
Data published by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shows production from CD5 increasing rapidly between October and November. CD5 produced 470,856 barrels of oil in December, a production rate that averages to 15,188 barrels per day. By comparison, December production from the rest of the Colville River unit was 880,503 barrels.
Scott Jepsen, ConocoPhillips vice president external affairs, characterized CD5 as a milestone project for his company, an around $1 billion investment that represents a gateway into NPR-A. At peak, some 700 people were working on the project, he said. Looking farther west in NPR-A, ConocoPhillips is now moving ahead with new development in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit: In November 2015 the company sanctioned development of the GMT-1 well site and the company is in the process of permitting GMT-2.
GMT-1 will likely produce about 30,000 barrels per day of oil, Jepsen said.
Safety a priority Both Brodie and Jepsen emphasized the priority that ConocoPhillips places on workplace safety, a priority emphasized by safety briefings and the mandated use of personal safety equipment ranging from safety glasses and helmets to shoe cleats when walking outside.
“Safety is our core value,” Jepsen said. “We don’t do it unless we know it can be done safely. It’s that simple.”
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Kuukpik supports responsible development
Kuukpik Corp., the Native corporation for the village of Nuiqsut, supports the responsible development of oil and gas, Isaac Nukapigak, the corporation’s president, told reporters on Feb. 9 during a media tour of ConocoPhillips’ new CD5 development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. CD5 is located on Kuukpik surface land and produces oil from subsurface, much of which belongs to Native regional corporation Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Kuukpik has a land use agreement with ConocoPhillips, Nukapigak said.
Nuiqsut is located near the central processing facility for the Alpine field, immediately east of CD5. For many years the villagers, while gaining economic benefits from the North Slope oil industry, have also been concerned about the impacts of the industry on their subsistence lifestyle.
Nukapigak said that the villagers had initially been particularly worried about the proposed location of a bridge that would carry the road from Alpine to the CD5 site over a major channel of the Colville River — the villagers conduct subsistence fishing in the river. With the use of traditional knowledge, the locals worked with ConocoPhillips to identify a more suitable site for the bridge, Nukapigak said. Village elders are familiar with the Colville landscape and could also, for example, help ensure that roads would be located safely in an area that is a river floodplain, he said.
And with the oil development generating local income through taxes and contracting opportunities, responsible development can be a win-win for all involved, Nukapigak said. Moreover, with development happening, the local people need to be involved in decision making and the permitting process.
“Having a seat at the table is the way to come,” Nukapigak said.
—ALAN BAILEY
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