AOGCC approves allowable gas offtake
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ConocoPhillips applied for amendment of rate for Colville River unit to allow additional CRU gas to be used at Greater Mooses Tooth
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
In an Oct. 8 application, operator ConocoPhillips Alaska asked for approval from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to amend the allowable gas offtake rate for the Colville River unit to provide gas to the Lookout and Rendezvous oil pools at the Greater Mooses Tooth unit. The company said the current allowable rate for Colville River participating areas is 7 million cubic feet per day on a cumulative annual basis.
ConocoPhillips requested an increase to 25 million cubic feet. That includes gas to the Village of Nuiqsut and gas for Greater Mooses Tooth operational needs and for enhanced oil recovery. The company also requested that the allowable rate apply to "all currently defined pools within the CRU and any future pools that commingle production at the Alpine Central Facility."
The 2018 approval of an allowable gas offtake rate not to exceed 7 million cubic feet per day was to meet contractual obligations to provide gas to Nuiqsut "and to support the development of Lookout and Rendezvous Oil Pools in the GMTU," ConocoPhillips said. Alpine Pool rules were revised in 2021 to clarify that the volume was on a cumulative annual basis. The gas offtake rate also applies to new pools processing production at the Alpine Central Facility. Production began from Lookout at GMTU in 2018 and at Rendezvous in 2021.
ConocoPhillips said Colville River and Greater Mooses Tooth production is commingled and processed at the Alpine Central Facility, with commingled gas consumed within the units for operational purposes and provided to Nuiqsut via the Alpine Transportation Co.
ConocoPhillips said that "given the cyclical nature of WAG (water alternating gas) enhanced oil recovery, and the best-player plays approach to keeping wells online, injection rates have varied significantly at CRU and GMTU and will continue to vary as the operational needs of the collective fields producing into the ACF evolve and change."
Significant excess gas from GMTU ConocoPhillips said that GMTU production in the near term "is expected to generate significant excess gas. In most instances, the amount of GMTU return gas will exceed gas requirements of the GMTU" with that excess used at CRU for enhanced oil recovery.
But in some months, "GMTU will need gas beyond what it produces for its operations," the company said, citing "cycles when GMTU injection wells are converted from water injection to enriched gas injection." In those instances, CRU gas or GMTU gas previously injected into CRU reservoirs, would be necessary for GMTU operations.
ConocoPhillips said that through 2030 it forecasts "that GMTU will inject a net of 73,000 MMCF of gas into the CRU, resulting in substantial net cumulative balance of GMTU gas injected into the CRU. Additional gas in CRU will be used for EOR purposes to balance displacement efficiency and assist with reservoir throughput as the waterflood matures resulting in a new benefit in oil production from the CRU oil fields."
AOGCC approval In its Dec. 10 order approving the increase of the allowable gas offtake rate from 7 million cubic feet per day to 25 million cubic feet per day, AOGCC said that it was simplifying oversight and compliance by "having a standalone order on this matter instead of rules in the pool rules for the various pools in the CRU."
The commission said Conservation Order 828 applies to CRU "as currently defined and as it may be adjusted in the future" and to present oil pools in the unit or those that may exist in the future.
"Optimizing ultimate recovery from the CRU and GMTU requires flexibility to best utilize the gas for EOR purposes," the commission said.
The 25 million cubic feet per day on an annualized basis will be large enough, the commission said, to provide ConocoPhillips with needed operational flexibility "to maximize production from the two fields."
However, natural gas may not be severed from the unit for any purpose other than to meet contractual obligations to Nuiqsut and to support development of Greater Mooses Tooth.
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