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Vol. 16, No. 38 Week of September 18, 2011
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

AOGCC investigating shortage of injection water at Oooguruk field

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is concerned that water shortages at the Oooguruk unit could harm ultimate recovery rates at the offshore North Slope field.

The agency plans to hold a public hearing on the matter at 9 a.m. on Oct. 25.

Operator Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc. uses water injection for enhanced oil recovery at Oooguruk, but recent injection rates have been less than what the AOGCC anticipated when it issued conservation and area injection orders for the Oooguruk pools.

That’s because Pioneer isn’t getting as much water as it needs from its third-party supply at the Kuparuk River unit, operated by ConocoPhillips, CEO Scott Sheffield said during an earnings call in August. While Pioneer needs around 15,700 bpd of water for its North Slope operations, the company is currently getting around 6,000 bpd from its suppliers.

Working on water generation

“So cumulatively, what happens is, we don’t have enough water to inject,” COO Tim Dove said during an earnings conference call Aug. 4. “You’re basically not properly sweeping the oil from the reservoir. ... We’re working on internal fixes to start generating our own water supply. We didn’t think in advance of this project that was going to be required, because the operator in question we thought could deliver all the water we needed. We’re simply finding that that’s not the case. So our production would be higher this year, other than for the fact we’re losing production related to this lack of water.”

Pioneer lost around 1,000 bpd of oil this year as a result, Dove said.

Because “improperly conducted injection” could lead to lost resources, the AOGCC is holding a hearing to look at the adequacy of supplies, the impacts of a shortage of current and ultimate production and ways to minimize the potential loss of hydrocarbons.

The AOGCC is asking both Pioneer and ConocoPhillips to offer evidence at the hearing.

The AOGCC is taking written comments on the matter through Oct. 19.

—Eric Lidji



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