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Oil Patch Insider
BP lends Pioneer assistance on North Slope; no Kuukpik facilities offshore, Coast Guard recertifies The majors appear to be doing what they can to lend a hand to independent Pioneer Natural Resources Co., which is drilling its first wells on Alaska’s North Slope this winter.
Oil Patch Insider sources say that Pioneer has asked to use one of BP’s ball mills to grind cuttings from its drilling operations at the Northwest Kuparuk prospect between Thetis Island and the Kuparuk River unit.
Pioneer has Nabors Rig 27-E at the prospect but is also bringing in Nordic Calista Rig 3, which does not have an injector or grinder.
Pioneer is reportedly working on a ballot agreement with BP for use of the ball mill.
Pioneer already has a ballot agreement in place with Kuparuk unit operator ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., without which the company might not have been able to drill the prospect. No offshore facilities for Kuukpik leases, says ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. submitted a clarification for Petroleum News Alaska’s Feb. 23 story, “Satellite explosion.”
The front page story reported that ConocoPhillips told state and federal agencies as many as 10 additional satellites within a 30-mile radius of its Alpine facility were possible in the future, as well as standalone processing facilities outside that radius in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and for leases that might warrant development in the former Kuukpik unit.
ConocoPhillips’ spokeswoman Dawn Patience emailed PNA Feb. 26, saying “there are no facilities outlined in this plan which border or extend into the Beaufort Sea or into the river itself.”
Dawn was referring to an environmental impact statement proposal to agencies for the development of five Alpine satellites in the Colville River unit, which was part of the story. The 10 additional satellites and standalone facilities were mentioned in the EIS proposal’s supporting documentation.
PNA’s story does not mention the possibility of offshore facilities, but because the Kuukpik leases lie primarily offshore and at the mouth of the Colville River, Dawn was concerned that readers might assume the proposal called for offshore Kuukpik facilities. It does not. BLM to begin planning for southern NPR-A sale in 2004 Curt Wilson with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had good news for the attendees of the Feb.27-28 Alaska Conference in Anchorage.
BLM, he said, is going to begin the planning process for a southern National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sale in 2004.
Curt didn’t have much else to say about the southern planning process, except that BLM doesn’t know a lot about the oil and gas potential in that part of the oil reserve.
New head for Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council Jim Carter, executive director of the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council, is retiring. Recent press reports say Jim will be replaced by Mike Munger, the organization’s operations director.
For those of you who don’t know him, Mike has worked for both the oil industry and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and was environmental project manager for Alaska Technical Services in the 1980s.
Jim was the first president of the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council in 1990. He was hired as temporary director of the organization in July 1998. BP provides more information for Badami story BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. called after PNA’s March 2 edition came out with more information for that issue’s story on shutting down Badami – i.e. “BP continues to look at shutting down Badami, open to sale.”
The story’s headline suggests this isn’t the first time BP has looked at shutting down production at its eastern North Slope Badami unit, but PNA was unable to verify that fact and include information about it in the story until after the newspaper went to press.
BP spokesman Daren Beaudo told PNA that BP has “contemplated shutdown (of Badami) since about 1991, off and on” because of the field’s “high operating costs” and low production.
Daren also said Badami was officially “shut down only once since it began production and that was between February and May 1999. Production was so low from the field that the company was “concerned (crude oil in) a sales line might coagulate, thicken.”
BP was able to fix that problem.
Badami is currently producing approximately 1,400 barrels per day. It was expected to produce more than 30,000 barrels a day at its peak.
“We’re not interested in chugging along at that rate,” Daren said. Coast Guard recertifies CIRCAC The U.S. Coast Guard has recertified the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council, the council said March 3.
“Everything we do reinforces our mission of ensuring the safe transportation of oil in Cook Inlet,” said the organization’s out-going executive director, Jim Carter. “We made great progress last year and we’re well on our way to another remarkable year in 2003,” Jim Carter said.
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 mandates citizens’ advisory councils. The Cook Inlet council consists of 13 member organizations, including cities, boroughs and interest groups.
Editor’s note: News tips for Oil Patch Insider should be e-mailed to Kay Cashman at [email protected].
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