Badami 18th development plan
okayed; work on B1-07, B1-36 wells
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Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On June 14, Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas approved the 18th plan of development for the eastern North Slope Badami unit.
The application was signed April 27 by David Pascal, chief operating officer of independent Glacier Oil and Gas. Badami operator Savant Alaska is a Glacier company.
The Badami unit was formed on March 13, 1995, by BP Exploration (Alaska). Savant succeeded BPX as operator of the unit in 2008.
As of April 30, the Badami unit has cumulatively produced 9.667million barrels of oil, 34.981billion cubic feet of gas and 16,651 barrels of water.
In May 2020, with the approval of the division, Savant suspended operations and production at Badami.
The suspension ended on Oct. 7 when Savant was able to fully restart production. Since then, the agency said, Badami has produced 0.323 million barrels of oil and 0.225 bcf of gas.
Ratcliff steps up In June 2020 Stephen Ratcliff replaced Phil Elliott as president of Glacier.
Ratcliff, a petroleum engineer, had been Glacier’s vice president of drilling, having served in that position since 2013.
Prior to joining Glacier, he spent his career in operating and engineering roles in the oil and gas industry - the most recent with Hess Corp. - and has worked on both the service and operator side, as well as in various consulting roles.
17th Badami Unit POD Due to the production suspension, the 17th Badami unit plan of development, or POD, period was shortened from 12 months to nine months. During this shortened POD period, Savant committed to progressing its compliance and engineering work for the Badami East Pad and maintaining its current unit infrastructure while exploring for options to optimize and enhance Badami production.
The Badami East Pad is expected to become the base of operations for drilling at the eastern edge of the unit.
Savant told the division that it has permits in place to extract gravel and build the pad but did not proceed with detailed engineering work. The company said it will delay construction until a multi-well development project for the Badami East Pad is approved.
Nonetheless, from December 2020 through April 2021, daily production from Badami averaged 1,463.25 barrels of oil per day and 1.302 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Proposed 18th POD For its 18th Badami unit POD period, Savant committed to the following:
* Conduct gas lift optimization on the Badami B1-07 well (was part of the Starfish drilling program);
* Conduct production logging on the Badami B1-36 well;
* Continue compliance work and further engineering work related to infrastructure, tie-in and additional processing requirements for the Badami East Pad; and
* Continue well and facility maintenance, optimization, and explore options to enhance production “as appropriate.”
Divesture status As to whether Glacier still has its Badami leases and infrastructure up for sale, the company did not get back to Petroleum News in time for deadline. (Glacier only had 24 hours to respond.)
As reported in the Nov. 22 edition of PN’s Oil Patch Insider, on Nov. 16, BMO Capital Markets Energy Group put out a divesture notice announcing it had been retained by Glacier to represent the company in a sale of the Badami unit.
In its Badami asset overview, BMO said it was a turnkey, 100% operated, “cash flow positive asset … with significant exploration and exploitation potential from highly prolific stacked pay reservoirs,” producing ~2,000 barrels of oil per day, primarily from the Badami and Killian sands.
BMO said the “Hilcorp/BP retention of ARO and select plugging obligations limits buyer exposure,” noting the Killian sands are “primed for development following” its successful B1-07 well.
In its asset overview, BMO also said a “75 mi seismic survey covers entire block and confirms subsurface model” and that the “existing Glacier-owned, BP-constructed infrastructure supports full field development and optionality for third party revenue/volumes.”
BMO pointed to Badami’s “38,500 bo/d facility with capacity for additional volumes on or offset the unit” and “multiple access points via barge landing and 5,500 ft airstrip.”
Another one of BMO’s bullet points was the “70 mbo/d capacity Nutaaq pipeline owned and operated by Glacier (12” diameter, 25 mile) that connects Point Thompson to Endicott.” Nutaaq is a common carrier line.
It should be noted that the first Killian sands producing well and oil discovery was made in the B1-38 well by Savant before the company was purchased.
In early 2010, Savant drilled the B1-38 well into the Red Wolf prospect and found oil in two horizons. The first was the deeper Kekiktuk formation that also contains the oil reservoir for the Endicott field to the west. The second was the shallower late Cretaceous Killian sands, a Brookian interval.
Savant was able to keep Badami production relative steady for several years with the help of that well and later B1-07.
At one time Glacier was looking for an investment partner in Badami to help fund a three-to-four-year drilling program in the Killian oil discoveries on its leases outside the Badami Sands participating area.
The company wanted such a partner to invest $200 million in the program.
- KAY CASHMAN
Editor’s note: See updated information on Badami in next week’s edition of Petroleum News.
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