AOGCC approves commingling of Killian, Badami oil at B1-38 well
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Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On Sept. 22, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued an order authorizing downhole commingling of production from the Badami oil pool and an undefined oil pool unofficially named the Killian oil pool in the Badami unit B1-38 well.
Glacier Oil and Gas subsidiary Savant Alaska operates the Badami unit, which is located along the Beaufort Sea coastline of the eastern North Slope.
The B1-38 development oil well was spud by Savant in 2009 and completed in the Killian in February 2010. The well reached measured depth at 15,778 feet in testing the Kekiktuk formation, which had zero flows. Up hole, however, the Killian, at 14,434 to 14,497 feet measured depth, achieved a maximum flow of 1,709 barrels per day.
The well came online at approximately 400 barrels of oil per day from the Killian oil pool and has "generally been in a long slow decline and is currently producing about 130 bpd," AOGCC said in its order.
Through July 2023, a little under 790,000 barrels had been recovered from the B1-38 well.
The B1-38 penetrated the Badami oil pool at approximately 1,100 feet true vertical depth, or TVD, up hole from the Killian oil pool. To offset declining Killian production, Glacier said it intends to perforate 80 feet of the Badami sands and commingle the volumes.
In its application Glacier said it will do this work in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
Glacier expects the crossflow potential between the pools to be negligible since the deeper Killian has been produced for several years which has partially depleted its pressure, so the pressure differential between the Killian oil pool and the Badami oil pool will be negligible.
Additionally, the well is a gas lifted producer which will work to lift the produced fluids to the surface as opposed to allowing it to flow between the pools, per AOGCC.
Allowing commingled production from the pools should result in an increase in the oil flow rate over its current rate, which will extend the economic life of the well and thus allow for increased production from the pools, which will increase ultimate recovery in the field and prevent waste, AOGCC said.
--KAY CASHMAN
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