Hilcorp files PODs for small inlet fields
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Beaver Creek, Birch Hill, in BLM-managed Kenai National Wildlife Refuge; North Trading Bay a unit produced from Monopod Platform
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska has described varied plans to regulators for three small Cook Inlet units it operates - Beaver Creek, Birch Hill and North Trading Bay.
The onshore Beaver Creek and Birch Hill units are on federal leases in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and those units are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, while North Trading Bay is in state waters and the unit is managed by the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.
Beaver Creek Beaver Creek is the only one of these three units currently in production, averaging 9,975 thousand cubic feet per day of natural gas in May, the most recent month for which Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data is available, and accounting for 4.5% of Cook Inlet natural gas production in that month. Discovered by Marathon Oil Co. in 1967, Beaver Creek is southwest of the Swanson River unit in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Hilcorp’s 54th plan of development and operations for the unit, submitted to BLM in March, covers April 1, 2021, through March 31, 2022.
The company told BLM it drilled a sidetrack to the BCU-19 well targeting the Tyonek/Beluga sands during the 2019 POD, and, also under that plan, attempted to work over BCU-04RD, a Tyonek oil sand producer which failed in August 2019. A 2020 attempt to work it over failed, Hilcorp said, and there is a new plan in place for 2021.
Under the 2020 POD, Hilcorp said it restaged the sales compressor as a booster compressor and routed the BC-05 flowline through a process heater.
Also during the 2020 POD, the company completed well work on two wells previously shut-in, returning them to production: BCU-14A and BCU-09 were both perforated in the Sterling pool and brought online in August.
2021 planned work includes working over BCU-04RD, the Tyonek oil sand producer which failed mechanically in 2019, as well as evaluating and implementing additional well repairs and/or workover projects as they arise, Hilcorp said.
Birch Hill The BLM-managed Birch Hill unit is northeast of Swanson River in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. AOGCC records show the field only produced in 1965, the year it was discovered by Standard Oil Company of California, with 65,331 thousand cubic feet of gas recorded in June 1965 from an exploration well, Birch Hill Unit 22-25.
Focus in recent years has been on finding a partner to explore the area, and alternatively, on planning to plug and abandon the well.
Hilcorp said in the 56th plan of development and operations, filed with BLM in March, that the 2020 POD focused on potential road access, and said it met with BLM and Cook Inlet Region Inc., which holds a 20% working interest, on potential northern road access. A 2019 analysis found the North Road to be the preferred option, Hilcorp said, because it has less environmental and wetlands impact, is significantly shorter than a road coming from the south from the Swanson River and involves less complicated land ownership and restrictions.
North Road construction is dependent on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Kenai Spur Highway extension project, as Hilcorp plans to construct North Road off the anticipated highway extension, originally scheduled for completion in 2020, but subsequently delayed to 2021, requiring an extension from BLM into 2021 to begin North Road construction.
CIRI Production Co. is a 20% working interest owner in the Birch Hill unit, and Hilcorp said the two have been searching for interested third parties to potentially develop oil and gas resources in the Birch Hill area. Two meetings were held with an interested party during the 2020 POD period but, Hilcorp said, so far interest is uncertain, although it and CIRI continue to look for and evaluate potential parties.
Hilcorp said it met with BLM during the 2019 POD period to discuss a new plug and abandon schedule for Birch Hill, and said the agency verbally agreed to extend the start date for North Road construction by one year and said it is proposing a new plan for Birth Hill, aligned with its request to extend the “Plug or Produce” deadline to May 1, 2022.
In reviewing results of the 2020 plan, Hilcorp said it made efforts to find partners to develop Birch Hill, but no real interest developed and said it “is moving forward with the planned P&A work for Birch Hill.”
Hilcorp said BLM granted the requested extension for plug and produce and said plans to P&A Birch Hill are moving forward.
Under the 2021 plan, Hilcorp said the road design will be finalized in the summer, and grubbing/clearing for the gravel road path will occur, followed ty gravel road construction in the fall and P&A of the Birch Hill Unit 22-25 well in the fall/winter. If the surface owner requires road removal that would occur in the spring/summer of 2022.
North Trading Bay unit Hilcorp submitted a 2021 plan of development for the North Trading Bay unit to the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas July 16, a plan which would be effective Oct. 15 through June 30, 2023.
North Trading Bay is in Cook Inlet at the northeastern corner of the Trading Bay unit
The company said it did not anticipate any production from the unit under the 2020 plan but “anticipated performing a technical analysis to identify drill targets to return the NTBU to production,” and provided the division quarterly updates on that process. Under the 2020 POD, Hilcorp incorporated data acquired from the A-10RD well and evaluated potential sidetrack candidates to return the unit to production. The company said those targets were the Hemlock and Tyonek G zone oil and Tyonek gas reservoirs. The A-10RD and A-09RD from the Monopod at the Trading Bay unit were identified as possibilities for the sidetrack.
In the 2021 POD, Hilcorp said it plans to progress the NTBU field study “to further reduce uncertainty of subsurface oil and gas opportunities and incorporate new data acquired from planned sidetrack operations” during the plan period.
The company said that upon success of the proposed sidetrack, it anticipates that the NTBU will be returned to production.
The planned sidetrack from the Monopod Platform well in the Trading Bay unit, likely the A-10RD, would target the Tyonek gas sands, with the producing interval to be within the NTBU boundary.
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