The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is considering whether revisions are appropriate to Conservation Order 360, issued in 1995, based on changing circumstances and had scheduled a Sept. 19 hearing on that subject.
Following the commission’s decision in CO 360, Prudhoe Bay field operator BP Exploration (Alaska) has been maximizing production of blendable natural gas liquids. Based on testimony in a 2012 hearing on potential waste of propane at Prudhoe, the commission is now asking if maximizing NGL production actually promotes maximum ultimate recovery, or if BP should be focused on production of miscible injectant for enhanced oil recovery project.
In scheduling the hearing the commission said it was “considering whether changes in circumstances” since CO 360 was issued warrant revision of the conservation order, and said it would be considering whether findings and conclusions in CO 360 remain viable and the effect, “if any,” of an annual average MI volume of less than 600 million cubic feet per day “on ultimate recovery from the Prudhoe Oil Pool.”
Commission Chair Cathy Foerster said Sept. 19 that the hearing had been changed to a prehearing conference, as BP Exploration (Alaska) had requested clarification on what the commission was expecting to learn at a public hearing.
Foerster said her goal was to reschedule the hearing 60 days from Sept. 19.
Attorney Jeff Leppo, representing BP, noted that BP had previously asked to submit prefiled testimony on Dec. 6, citing complications of coordinating testimony among the Prudhoe working interest owners.
Foerster said she would discuss scheduling with the other commissions, but said her feeling was that the companies had engineers looking at reservoir management daily and it shouldn’t take 120 days to answer the commission’s questions. As of this morning the commission had yet to post a new hearing date.
—KRISTEN NELSON
See stories in Sept. 29 issue, available online at 11 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, at www.PetroleumNews.com
