AOGCC fines Hilcorp work at Milne well

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said in a Dec. 11 order that it is fining Hilcorp Alaska $95,000 for making changes in AOGCC approved plans for work on the Milne Point Unit K-33 well without notifying and receiving approval from the commission and for failure -- at the same well -- to notify the commission of a planned blowout preventer test. A 24-hour notice is required to allow the commission to witness a blowout preventer test.

The commission provided notice May 29 to Hilcorp Alaska, 100% owner and operator of Milne Point, of the proposed enforcement action.

In a June 4 response, Hilcorp said it did not intend to contest the issue and provided the commission with actions it has taken to prevent recurrence.

On the failure to notify and obtain approval of changes in plans in the completion program for MPU K-33, Hilcorp said it "has identified a gap in the training requirements" for its operations engineers.

The company said staff operations engineers "have training assigned and tracked," but operations engineers who are contractors "have not had full access to these training modules to date."

Hilcorp said that gap in training had been rectified, with training modules assigned to contractor operations engineers "to be completed with records retained."

"The content of one of the training modules includes a section that would have covered this infraction and should have prevented this infraction."

As for the failure to provide prior notice to the commission of the blowout preventer test, the company said it "has engaged and re-enforced the notification requirements" required by the commission's regulations "to the rig supervisors."

"The lack of notification was an oversight due to a pending pause in operations for the ASR-1 rig. Efforts to maintain operational focus have been on the forefront of discussions and have been quite successful outside of this infraction," Hilcorp said.

--KRISTEN NELSON