Palm production exceeds expectations

Kay Cashman, Petroleum News publisher & managing editor

ConocoPhillips Alaska has completed development drilling at drill site 3S, the location of the Palm discovery on the western side of the North Slope’s Kuparuk River unit.

“The total number of wells at the drill site is 17, including nine producers and eight MWAG injectors. The current oil production rate is approximately 29,000 barrels of oil per day, which exceeds pre-development expectations,” company spokeswoman Dawn Patience told Petroleum News July 9.

“The project came in under budget and ahead of schedule,” she said.

Expected to peak at 16,000 barrels per day in 2004, Patience said the Kuparuk satellite is currently producing approximately 29,000 bopd, exceeding pre-development expectations.

Development drilling began in early November and the field came on line Nov. 14, initially producing 2,350 bopd of 26 degree API gravity oil from one well.

Rick Mott, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s vice president of exploration and land, said Nov. 21 that the Kuparuk accumulation at Palm is estimated to contain 35 million barrels of recoverable reserves.

The time from the spud of the discovery well to first production was 20 months.