|
Focus on seismic Armstrong reprocessing 3D from many shoots across most of 325,000 acres
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Operator Bill Armstrong and his partners in the Lagniappe acreage on Alaska's eastern North Slope are in the process of reprocessing all of the 3D seismic from "multiple shoots" across "most" of the 325,000-acre block, he told Petroleum News in a recent text.
"We have delayed the drilling of appraisal wells and wildcats around Sockeye until early 2027. ... Now that we have drilled a well and better understand the subsurface Apache/Armstrong/Santos have all agreed that that made the most sense," Armstrong said.
When asked about recoverable reserves, Armstrong is estimating 700 million barrels recoverable in the "main Sockeye pay sand."
"That number will more than likely be adjusted with future drilling," he said.
Sockeye-2 discovery On April 24, APA Corp. and its partners Lagniappe Alaska, an Armstrong company, and Oil Search (Alaska), a Santos subsidiary, announced the results of a successful flow test of the Sockeye-2 exploration well.
APA's Apache holds a 50% working interest, operator Armstrong/Lagniappe and partner Santos each hold 25% working interests in the 325,411-acre block which is on state of Alaska lands.
"This is very exciting for us, our partners and for the state of Alaska," Armstrong told PN on June 10.
"This discovery also confirms our geological models and exploration methodology." he said. "There is so much more to do in Lagniappe."
The Sockeye-2 well, located approximately 10 miles from the Badami oil field and its open access pipeline, was successfully drilled to a depth of approximately 10,500 feet and encountered a high-quality Paleocene-aged clastic reservoir with an average porosity of 20%.
The vertical Sockeye-2 was completed in a single 25-foot interval at approximately 9,200 feet true vertical depth.
On April 24 Armstrong said the well was "very old school in its performance, in that there was no stimulation or fracking required. It was completely natural."
During the 12-day production test, the well averaged 2,700 barrels of oil per day in the final flow period, without artificial lift.
The results of the flow test indicate significantly higher reservoir quality compared to similar topset discoveries to the west.
Armstrong said the discovery "significantly extends the prolific Brookian topset play first established with our Pikka discovery in 2013. We have identified analogous anomalies to investigate following on this success."
The Sockeye-2 well was "based off of reprocessed 3D seismic. It showed us the same seismic signature that we recognized 94 miles to the west when we discovered the Pikka field," Armstrong said following the discovery announcement. "That sort of expansion to one of the world's best oil plays is a really big deal."
"We are especially encouraged by the great reservoir rock. Our average permeability is more than 10 times that of Willow, and five times the permeability of the Pikka and Alpine fields," he said.
| 