Redoubt Shoal tests at 1,010 barrels per day
Forest Oil Corp. said Feb. 19 that it has successfully logged and tested its 1 Redoubt unit exploratory well. The well was drilled to a total depth of 15,323 feet and logged approximately 450 feet of net pay. It tested at 1,010 barrels a day from the Hemlock formation.
Forest said it will produce the well by artificial lift and expects it to flow at a production rate of 2,500 barrels a day.
The company said it will spud the 2 Redoubt Unit exploratory well within two weeks to test the Hemlock formation in an adjacent fault block. The 2 Redoubt is expected to reach total depth in late April. Forest plans to drill up to three more wells after the 2 Redoubt and is presently in the process of permitting the field for development.
Forest anticipates first production from the Redoubt unit in the second quarter of 2002.
Commission schedules North Cook Inlet integration hearing
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has set a hearing date of March 13 on the Danco Inc. and Monte Allen petition for compulsory unitization of two tracts into the existing North Cook Inlet gas production unit.
The hearing grows out of a 1996 application which the commission rejected.
Monte Allen appealed and the case reached the Alaska Supreme Court, which found that Allen was entitled to a hearing on the merits of his petition and remanded the case for a hearing.
BP has two spills on North Slope
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. has had two spills in as many days at Prudhoe Bay. The first, Feb. 19 at 7:40 p.m., at well 8 on Drill Site 7, was an undetermined amount of crude oil from a hole or leak on a valve on the tree portion of the well.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said Feb. 20 that after the leak was discovered, automated and manual valves were closed, but did not control the well. DEC said BP pumped approximately 600 barrels of seawater down the well to stop the release by controlling formation pressure. The well was brought under control and additional seawater will continue to be pumped down hole to keep pressure on the formation.
BP estimates approximately 400 square yards of snow is contaminated by oil and is surveying the spill area to determine if the spill extends off the well pad.
BP estimated the second spill, at Prudhoe Bay Gathering Center 1, at 112 to 224 barrels of crude oil. A six-inch flow line from D pad to Gathering Center 1 in the western operating area at Prudhoe Bay ruptured while BP was thawing ice within the line using crude oil and methanol at 2:25 a.m. Feb. 20.
The flow line ruptured during the thawing process, spilling crude oil from the line onto the snow and tundra. The line appeared to be about one-half full of oil. Total line capacity is 224 barrels.
BP closed valves on both sides of the flow line rupture and oil is no longer being released. BP personnel are cleaning up with a vacuum truck. The oil is beneath the snow cover and BP is delineating the area affected. An estimated 35 barrels of crude oil had been recovered by early afternoon.
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