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Vol. 23, No.16 Week of April 22, 2018
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

Six wells completed

ConocoPhillips makes three new oil discoveries; confirms Willow prospect

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

ConocoPhillips has announced that this winter it completed six North Slope exploration and appraisal wells, one more that the five wells than the company had originally planned. The company drilled the three exploration wells that it had planned and encountered oil in all three wells. And, thanks to improved drilling efficiencies, it was possible to drill one more than the two appraisal wells anticipated for the Willow prospect in the northeastern National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the company said.

New discoveries

The company said that the results from the three exploration wells “represent new discoveries,” and that a total of five production flow tests were conducted, with encouraging results. The Willow appraisal drilling supported a previously announced estimate of at least 300 million barrels of recoverable oil in the prospect, ConocoPhillips said.

All six wells, plus a sidetrack well, encountered oil and “verified the potential of the play,” the company said, presumably referencing the Nanushuk play that has significantly raised the ante for major oil development on the western side of the North Slope.

“The results of this year’s program are promising,” said Matt Fox, ConocoPhillips executive vice president, strategy, exploration and technology. “We are excited about the opportunity to extend our legacy in Alaska, where we have a long track record of operational success and value creation.”

The company said that it will assess the results from this winter’s drilling season “in anticipation of another active exploration and appraisal season in 2019.”

Other exploration

Other exploration wells scheduled to be drilled during the winter consist of Glacier Oil & Gas’s Starfish well on undeveloped leases near the Badami field, to the east of the central North Slope, and an extended reach well being drilled into the Beaufort Sea Nikaitchuq North prospect from a Spy Island drill pad by Eni US Operating Co. No information is available yet on any results for either of these wells.

Also, as previously reported by Petroleum News, 88 Energy Ltd. completed two 3-D seismic surveys during the winter. One survey, the Icewine survey, to the west of the Dalton Highway, was designed to confirm leads identified in existing 2-D seismic on the western margin of the company’s North Slope acreage. The second survey was on the company’s Yukon Gold acreage that it acquired last year, south of the Point Thomson field and west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Exploration drilling and seismic

On April 11, during a presentation to the House Finance Committee, Scott Jepsen, ConocoPhillips vice president of external affairs and transportation, commented on his company’s winter drilling program. He said that the three exploration wells that the company had drilled consisted of the West Willow No. 1, the Putu and the Stony Hill wells.

The West Willow well lies immediately west of the central part of the Bear Tooth unit, the unit that includes the Willow prospect. The Stony Hill well is about six miles south of the village of Nuiqsut, while the Putu well is about three miles east of Nuiqsut. The three Willow appraisal wells are the Tinmiaq Nos. 7, 8 and 9.

Jepsen also commented that this winter ConocoPhillips had completed a 250-square-mile seismic survey on state land some distance south of the Stony Hill well. The company is optimistic about finding more prospects, with the potential to drill more exploration wells, in that region, he said. ConocoPhillips is pioneering a new high resolution 3-D seismic technique called compressive seismic imaging, a technique that the company has said can help find the types of subtle oil traps associated with the Nanushuk play.

Nanushuk play

The Willow prospect involves the Nanushuk play - presumably the West Willow well would target the same play. The Stony Hill well is understood to be targeting a similar play to Willow. A well and sidetracks drilled in the area of the Putu well in 2008 by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. encountered hydrocarbons in several horizons, including in the Nanushuk formation.

Jepsen said that ConocoPhillips estimates potential peak production from Willow to be about 100,000 barrels per day, if the prospect is developed using standalone production facilities, similar to those in the Alpine field to the east. The scale of the Willow production would overwhelm the existing oil infrastructure in the region, thus necessitating the construction of new infrastructure at a cost of as much as $5 billion and involving several hundred direct jobs, Jepsen said.

ConocoPhillips has previously said that it is also evaluating the possibility of developing Willow as an Alpine satellite, along the lines of the neighboring Mooses Tooth developments. As a satellite field delivering production fluids to Alpine, Willow would produce at lower rates than would be possible as a standalone field.

Active season

Asked why ConocoPhillips had conducted an especially active exploration and appraisal drilling season this winter, Jepsen commented that a number of factors had driven the drilling program. Positive exploration results in recent years on the North Slope were associated with exploration trends that cross ConocoPhillips’ acreage, he said. The company had originally planned to drill the Putu well in the previous drilling season but had postponed the drilling because of some issues involving the nearby village of Nuiqsut and the state of Alaska. The company had the capacity to drill the Stony Hill well during the same season. And the company wanted to move ahead with an aggressive appraisal program at Willow, to enable an investment decision and the possibility of bringing the prospect on stream as soon as possible, Jepsen said.



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