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PODs describe work on Cook Inlet fields
Hilcorp submits plans of development for its offshore fields, including rig and non-rig work, drilling and facility maintenance Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska submitted plans of development, PODs, with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas April 1 for proposed plans for work at its existing offshore Cook Inlet fields. The PODs cover July 1 through June 30, 2022.
Hilcorp owns and operates fields which produce from 15 of the 17 oil and gas platforms in Cook Inlet.
The majority of the platforms were installed in the 1960s, beginning with Platform A at Middle Ground Shoal in 1964. All of Hilcorp’s platforms, with the exception of Steelhead, which was installed in 1986, date from the 1960s.
Two platforms, Osprey at Redoubt Shoal (owned by Glacier Oil & Gas Corp.’s Cook Inlet Energy, installed in 2000) and Julius R at Kitchen Lights (owned by Furie Alaska, installed in 2015), the most southern and northern of the inlet platforms, are not owned by Hilcorp.
Granite Point unit At the Granite Point unit, Hilcorp Alaska produces from three platforms: Anna, Bruce and Granite Point, among the most northerly of Cook Inlet platforms.
2020 calendar year production from the Granite Point platform was 825.3 million standard cubic feet, MMSCF, of natural gas and 734.9 thousand barrels of oil, Hilcorp told the division in its POD.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data show both volumes were up considerably from 2019, when the Granite Point platform produced 476.4 MMSCF of natural gas and 555.4 thousand barrels of oil.
Cumulative production from the Anna platform for 2020 was 296.0 thousand barrels of oil and 267.1 MMCF of natural gas, not much changed from 2019 at 294.5 thousand barrels of oil and 282.8 MMCF of natural gas, AOGCC data show.
The Bruce platform produced 229.9 MMCF of gas and 103.2 thousand barrels of oil in 2020, compared to 2019 when AOGCC data show natural gas production was 260.8 MMCF and oil production was 105.8 thousand barrels.
In its report on activities under the 2020 POD the company said it had planned to install a production separator and do electrical upgrades, but that work did not occur “due to capital constraints.”
The company did two workovers which were not anticipated: installation of a coil tubing inner string on the Granite Pt. St. 18742 20RD well, which was returned to production; and an unsuccessful re-perforation of an undefined gas zone in the Granite Pt. St. 18742 46 well.
Hilcorp said that during the 2021 POD period it would further evaluate additional rotary wells; perform mud acid jobs; and test the feasibility of multilateral coil tubing drilling and identify future candidates.
The company said it anticipates sidetracking the GPP 03-23 well in 2021, and does not anticipate any workover operations, but said “workovers will be executed to maintain and enhance production as needed.”
Middle Ground Shoal unit In its 2021 plan of development for the Middle Ground Shoal unit Hilcorp Alaska told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas that under the 2020 POD the company produced 452.1 thousand barrels of oil and 100.9 million standard cubic feet of natural gas from the unit. The volumes are a decrease in oil and in increase in gas, compared to 2019, AOGCC data show: In 2019 the unit had production of 459.0 thousand barrels of oil and 91.1 MMSCF of natural gas.
The company completed upgrades/operations on the platforms that it proposed in the 2020 POD: Platform A work included leg wrap inspection/repair and subsea flange inspection. A close interval survey on the A1 and B1 pipelines on Platform A will be completed before July 1, the company said.
Platforms A and B are in production; the Baker and Dillon platforms do not account for any current production.
At Baker, Hilcorp had an obligation under a settlement with PHMSA, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, to clean and temporarily abandon in place the B gas pipeline and the company told the division that work had been accomplished, along with a subsea platform brace joint inspection. At the Dillon platform, also to meet a PHMSA settlement obligation, Hilcorp cleaned and temporarily abandoned in place the A gas pipeline.
The company said it achieved all operations planned for the 2020 POD, including workover operations on four wells, coil tubing cleanouts and safe acid soaks.
In its 2021 POD, Hilcorp said it is “continuing to pursue rate add opportunities off both A and C platforms,” and if economic hurdles are met, it “plans to update completion designs to minimize scale formation, squeeze water producing intervals, add perforations, clean out scale in producer/injection wells, and repair damaged wells.”
It has also been looking at drilling “several rotary drill wells along with some coil tubing drilling wells.”
Hilcorp said it is evaluating subsurface work from the past two years “for potential development scenarios from Platforms A, C, and Baker,” including rotary drill infill wells, coil tubing sidetracks and stepout exploration wells.
Workover operations are planned for six wells.
North Cook Inlet In its 2021 POD for the North Cook Inlet unit Hilcorp told the division that it produced 5,915.2 million standard cubic feet of natural gas from the unit in calendar year 2020, up from AOGCC reported data of 5,134.2 MMSCF for calendar year 2019.
Production is from the Tyonek platform, one of the most northernly in Cook Inlet.
Under the 2020 POD the company said it completed well workover operations on two wells, adding production in June and July.
In addition to planned rig workovers, Hilcorp said it performed non-rig related projects on five wells, some of which the company said were unsuccessful, but with successful projects including cement isolation of Stray X sand and opening Stray 1/2/3 sands to production and adding perforations in Beluga A and B sands.
Hilcorp said it had rig and non-rig related projects planned to be completed during the remainder of the 2020 POD period, including adding perforations, coil cleanout and recompletion in a suspended well, with additional well work possible in preparation for potential sidetracks in the 2021 POD period.
A number of surface facility operations were performed on the Tyonek platform as planned during the 2020 POD.
One workover was not done as planned, Hilcorp said, when, after a successful workover at the NCI-A-07 well it was determined that workover operations at the NCI-A-04 well “were not required at this time to recover the targeted resource.”
For the 2021 POD period, Hilcorp said there are four sidetrack well prospects “identified during the NCIU field study,” although some of those probably won’t be drilled in the 2021 POD but will be drilled in future POD periods.
The company said it “plans further review of gas potential in the Beluga and Sterling accessible via RWO or sidetracks of existing wells.”
“Due to commodity price volatility, and large capital necessary, the potential development plans for the deep oil prospect have been deferred.”
As many as three sidetrack operations targeting the Beluga and Sterling formations from existing shut-in wells are among 2021 POD proposed operations, along with various rig and non-rig well projects, including preparations for potential sidetracks, coil cleanout operations, adding perforations of additional gas sands and recompletions for gas production or for use as Class II disposal.
Facility upgrades and modifications are planned on the Tyonek platform as part of effort to develop the field’s remaining gas reserves and the deep oil prospect, Hilcorp said.
Trading Bay unit Hilcorp’s Trading Bay unit includes the McArthur River field and the Trading Bay field.
The company told the division that 2020 production from the McArthur River field was 1,444.8 thousand barrels of oil and 9,213.5 million standard cubic feet of gas, compared to AOGCC-reported volumes for 2019 of 1,704.4 thousand barrels of oil and 8,347.0 MMSCF of natural gas, a drop in oil production but an increase in gas.
Hilcorp said it did two planned well workover operations, one a replacement of a failed electric submersible pump and the other a conversion from ESP to gas lift completion. In addition to planned rig workover projects, the company performed 17 rig and non-rig related projects, some of which were successful and some not so, including adding perforations, recompleting shut-in and active gas wells to add sands, replacing failed ESP completions, adding perforations and recompleting and replacing ESP.
Three additional projects, involving ESPs or perforations, are planned during the remainder of the 2020 POD period.
Included in the 2020 POD was surface facility work, including cathodic protection repair at the Trading Bay Production Facility, in-line inspection on Dolly Varden platform oil and gas lines and in-line inspection on the Steelhead platform gas pipeline (the last two items are anticipated by June).
An in-line inspection on the Grayling gas pipeline was postponed to 2024.
At the Trading Bay field, production for 2020 was 466.6 thousand barrels of oil and 960.2 MMSCF of gas from the Monopod platform, down from AOGCC reported 2019 volumes of 488.6 thousand barrels of oil and 1,068.9 MMSCF of gas.
Hilcorp did not perform an anticipated A-15RD2 well workover “due to lack of power needed for planned ESP completion in Hemlock reservoir in the McArthur River Field,” the company said. Surface facility operations completed included in-line inspection on oil and gas pipelines.
By the end of the 2020 POD period Hilcorp said it will complete an ongoing quarters replacement on the Monopod and replace a 4,100-foot section of oil pipeline.
During the 2021 POD, work at the McArthur River field will include continuing “evaluation of existing completions for rig workover opportunities to optimize the drawdown and lift mechanism” at the field’s wells, and continuing work on a field study to identify additional subsurface opportunities.
Various rig and non-rig well projects are planned for the McArthur River field.
No major facility upgrades are planned for the Dolly Varden or Grayling platforms.
At the King Salmon platform, an in-line inspection is planned of oil and gas pipelines; an in-line inspection is also planned for the Steelhead platform gas pipeline.
At Trading Bay, Hilcorp said it is working on a field study “to identify additional rig workover, rotary sidetrack, perforation adds, fill cleanouts, and waterflood reactivation opportunities.”
The company said it is evaluating potential well work opportunities that could include rig and/or non-rig work, and may include ESP repairs or replacements, coil cleanout operations, well gaslift operations and adding perforations.
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