|
Glacier files PODs for 2 Inlet units
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On Feb. 4 Cook Inlet Energy LLC, a Glacier Oil & Gas company, filed its 22nd plan of development, or POD, for the Redoubt unit in Cook Inlet with Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas. The period of this latest POD runs from May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024.
(See map in the online issue PDF)
It should be noted that on Jan. 9, Glacier, an independent oil and gas company focused on the exploration and production of Alaska resources from the North Slope to Cook Inlet, announced that Pontem Energy and Sweat Equity Partners, or SEP, acquired 100% ownership in Glacier, which maintained its same leadership and employees. In Cook Inlet the company has both the West McArthur River unit and the Osprey Platform at the Redoubt unit.
The development plans contained in the previous Redoubt POD consisted of the following:
• GLA will continue to explore ways to enhance production, manage production decline, and increase total ultimate recovery from existing wells within the unit.
• GLA plans to implement cost-effective solutions to handle increasing water cuts from existing wells through proper water disposal. This will include decreasing the amount of produced water from the West McArthur River unit that is currently being injected in the Redoubt unit.
• GLA plans to keep its options open for the Northern and Southern fault block development.
• GLA will conduct wireline operations on injection wells to collect additional information to aid in furthering reservoir studies.
• GLA will optimize pressures and rates for waterflooding and disposal of produced water in the Redoubt unit for maximum recovery within the unit.
• Depending upon obtaining approvals, GLA plans to conduct a flow test and collect reservoir information on RU-9 that was drilled in the Southern fault block that has a failed electronic submersible pump, or ESP.
• GLA will conduct inline inspections, or ILIs, on subsea pipelines connecting the Osprey platform and the Kustatan production facility.
• GLA will conduct an upgrade of its fire and gas systems on the Osprey platform.
• GLA will analyze the multibeam surveys on the subsea pipelines that was completed in late 2021 prior to the restart and will engage in appropriate remediation work if necessary
Requirements met The extent to which the requirements of the previously approved POD were achieved include the following.
After the unit restart on Sept. 28, 2021, GLA focused its efforts on restoring production, arresting declines, managing produced water injection and investigating additional avenues to enhance oil recovery. This included a pilot acid simulation on the RU-2A well.
Acid simulation pilots conducted on West McArthur River unit WMRU-5 and WMRU-6 wells in June 2022 were found to be beneficial on ESP pump performance by eliminating scale buildup caused from high water cuts and aided in enhancing production from the Hemlock reservoir.
Due to ESP failure from unrelated issues on the RU-2A post acid job, the results on the Redoubt unit are yet to be fully vetted.
GLA performed pilot injection testing in December 2022 at West McArthur River to identify suitable candidates for work over to convert shut-in wells into injection wells for produced water disposal.
Currently, produced water from the Redoubt and West McArthur River units is being injected at Redoubt after processing at Kustatan Production Facility. This will ultimately decrease the amount of produced water from the West McArthur River unit being injected into the Redoubt unit.
GLA also captured data from producing and injection wells that included data from wireline operations. This data is currently being used to update the Redoubt unit’s geological and reservoir model.
GLA was also able to optimize pressures and injection rates after gathering data from wireline operations. The company is currently able to process all produced water from the two units through the Redoubt unit Class I and Class II injection wells due to these efforts.
Furthermore, GLA completed inline inspections of the three subsea lines connecting the Osprey Platform and the Kustatan Production Facility during fourth quarter of 2022.
GLA also completed upgrades of its fire and gas systems on the Osprey in first and second quarters of 2022.
Deviations Actual operations that deviated from or did not comply with the previously approved POD and an explanation of the deviation or noncompliance are as follows:
• GLA was not able to advance development on the Northern and Southern fault blocks due to capital constrains coupled with geologic and drilling risk associated with some of these prospects GLA also underwent an ownership change process at the corporate level that paused this effort.
• GLA was able to obtain pressure data through wireline on the RU-9 well but was not able to perform any flow testing. ILI inspections, fire and gas upgrades and acid simulation projects has delayed this effort to 2023.
• GLA was not able to complete analysis of the multibeam surveys because ILI inspections were delayed to fourth quarter 2022 due to supply chain issues with vendors.
Promises made in new plan Under its latest Redoubt POD, GLA says it will continue to explore ways to enhance production, manage production decline, and increase total ultimate recovery from existing wells within the unit.
GLA said it will review data collected during the SOP and restart efforts and will update its reservoir model which will include an evaluation for converting producing wells to injectors.
In addition to the above, GLA will revisit the Redoubt unit’s G&G model and will update the unit’s structure maps and cross sections. This will include a review of all old and new log data to explore for shallow gas potential on non-productive wells.
GLA plans to implement cost-effective solutions to mitigate increasing water cuts from existing wells within the unit through proper water disposal. This will include decreasing the amount of produced water from the West McArthur River unit that is currently being injected into the Redoubt unit via a free water knockout project.
GLA plans to keep its options open for the high-risk prospects in the Northern and Southern fault block development. It will work with new ownership on access to capital and avenues to reduce the risk factors associated with exploration and development of those prospects.
GLA will replace the failed ESP in the RU-2A well and evaluate the effectiveness of the acid simulation job conducted in 2022. GLA will evaluate the future of the RU-5B well as an injector or producer through reservoir modelling. The workover on the well will be performed in conjunction with the RU-2A well on the Osprey Platform
GLA will conduct wireline operations on injection wells as needed to aid in furthering reservoir studies.
Depending upon obtaining approvals, GLA plans to conduct a flow test, collect reservoir information and further its efforts on the RU-9 well that was drilled in the Southern fault block which has a failed ESP,
GLA will evaluate use of Rig 35 that has been dormant on the Osprey since 2019 along with opportunities for bringing in other suitable rigs for the workover campaign at Redoubt.
Long-range proposed development activities for the Redoubt unit include plans to delineate all underlying oil or gas reservoirs, bring the reservoirs into production, and maintain and enhance production once established.
WMRU new POD filed On the same day as the Redoubt POD was filed, Feb. 4, Glacier’s Cook Inlet Energy filed a new POD for the West McArthur River unit that corresponds with all of the activities in the new Redoubt unit POD. It is the 31st POD for West McArthur River, which also runs from May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2024.
Everything GLA plans corresponds with its proposed activities in the Redoubt unit.
One particularly interesting comment about what GLA was unable to accomplish in the previous WMRU plan was development on the Sabre exploration prospect due to capital constrains coupled with drilling risk.
But in its 31st POD the company is going to keep its options open for Sabre. GLA will work with new ownership on access to capital for the prospect.
Sabre is in a far corner of the unit. Former operator Forcenergy shot 3D seismic over Sabre, describing it as a 50 million to 100 million barrel prospect. Development has been delayed by the difficulty of drilling an extended reach well from onshore, but with the arrival of a jack-up rig in Cook Inlet, the cost of exploration has reportedly come down.
David Pascal, chief operating officer of Glacier, signed both POD applications.
| 