Accumulate Energy Alaska Inc., the local operating company for Australia-based 88 Energy, has begun permitting for two winter exploration wells - Bravo 1 and Charlie 1. The company has drilled two Icewine wells from the Franklin Bluffs gravel pad south of Deadhorse and adjacent to the Dalton Highway, and is testing Icewine 2. Because the existing gravel pad is accessible year-round, that work did not require ice roads or ice pads.
The new wells will be 22 to 25 miles west of the Franklin Bluff gravel pad, Accumulate said in an application to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for an update its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan.
Accumulate said in its application that Icewine 1, an exploration core hole drilled at the Franklin Bluffs pad “found oil bearing formations that cannot flow to surface on an unassisted basis.”
The Icewine 2 exploration flow test well, drilled at Franklin Bluffs earlier this year, was designed to help “determine the size and extent of the oil bearing formations and the best means for producing from them,” the company said.
Bravo 1 and Charlie 1, planned for winter 2018, will be drilled from ice pads accessed via a tundra winter ice road, and will be drilled “to further evaluate the opportunity to explore for additional oil deposits within the Accumulate lease block,” the company said.
Plans for 2018 drilling
Accumulate said in its project overview that Bravo 1 and Charlie 1 are targeting conventional oil deposits in the company’s western play fairway some 39 miles south of existing North Slope development.
The company said it will construct and operate infrastructure to drill the two exploration wells, including construction, operation and maintenance of ice roads and pads.
Field studies are planned for late June through mid-September, with installation of thermistors from July 1 through mid- September. Staking and pre-packing of ice roads and pads will begin in mid- November and run through the first of the year; construction of ice roads and pads will begin in mid-December and run through Jan. 21.
Mobilizing the drill rig, camp and support operations will begin Jan. 21 and run through the end of January.
Drilling and testing the Bravo 1 well is planned for Feb. 1 through April 14; drilling and testing the Charlie 1 well is scheduled for March 1 through April 14, with demobilizing the drill rig, test, camp and support operations scheduled for April 14 through April 24, with summer stick picking and tundra remediation from July 1 through Sept. 15.
Construction
The tundra winter ice road will be constructed starting from mile post 386.5 of the Dalton Highway to the proposed Bravo ice pad and then an access road will be constructed from the Bravo pad to the proposed Charlie pad.
Accumulate said the proposed wells are some 22 to 25 miles west of the Franklin Bluffs pad. A map included in the DEC application shows the ice road running southwest from the Dalton Highway to the Bravo pad and then northwest to the Charlie pad.
The cross country ice road is estimated at 23.2 miles, with 14 lakes and two gravel pits to be accessed for water and ice chips. The 500-by-500 foot Bravo had will be at the southern terminus of the ice road; a 4.7-mile long access ice road will extend west then north from the Bravo pad to the Charlie pad, which will also be a 500-by-500-foot pad.
Accumulate said the ice roads will be built to accommodate drill rig moves, with pre-packing requested prior to official tundra opening to drive frost down and preserve early snow.
The company also said that where ice roads cross established subsistence trails they will be constructed to provide a smooth transition to ensure subsistence trail users have safe passage.
Drilling
Accumulate said both wells will be drilled to a depth of some 11,000 feet to test conventional objectives within the Seabee formation.
A mobile land drilling rig similar to the Arctic Fox will be used, with the same rig drilling both wells.
The plan is to test and hydraulically fracture both wells, and Accumulate said the wells may include laterals, sidetracks or additional penetrations from the same exploration pad. Each well involves a vertical hole to about 10,000 feet, with measure while drilling, log while drilling and wireline conducted in the open hold, along with rotary sidewall coring and repeat formation tester fluid sampling, the company said.
Phase II of the programs would include hydraulic stimulation and flow-back testing of prospective intervals to evaluate reservoir production.
The Bravo wells will be a tract operation in Alaska Division of Lands leases 393048, 393049, 393058 and 393059. The Charlie well will be in ADL leases 393043, 393044, 393052 and 393054.
All of the tracts are owned 77.5 percent by Accumulate and 22.5 percent by Burgundy Xploration, per a November 2014 agreement between the companies whereby 88 Energy acquired an 87.5 percent working interest, reduced to 77.5 percent on spud of the first well.
Icewine wells
Icewine 1, drilled in late 2015, was an 11,600-foot vertical well designed to test potential of the HRZ shale and conventional targets. The company had planned to return and drill a lateral from Icewine 1 and do multistage fracturing, but results of 2-D seismic, acquired in 2016, convinced the company to drill the Icewine 2, which reached its target depth of 10,450 feet on May 15, according to a May 17 announcement from 88 Energy.
In an Aug. 24 update 88 Energy said flow testing on Icewine 2 would re-commence beginning Aug. 28, following a six week shut-in. The company said there was a one week delay due to fine-tuning of the testing procedure.
Icewine 2 was shut-in July 10 to allow for pressure build up.
