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AOGCC sets hearing for gas off-take limit for Prudhoe oil pool
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will hold a public hearing March 3 on a potential revision of its gas off-take limit for the Prudhoe oil pool, the commission said Jan. 25.
The commission is considering a revision of a 1977 rule which limits the maximum annual gas off-take to “2.7 billion standard cubic feet per day” or “an annual average gas pipeline delivery sales rate of 2.0 billion cubic feet per day of pipeline quality gas…”
The commission’s current rule is based on information available prior to the beginning of regular production from the Prudhoe oil pool. There have been “considerable changes” in the Prudhoe reservoir depletion plan and information available over the 27 years the field has been in production and the commission will consider whether the provisions of the 1977 rule should be changed. Work expected to take a couple of years Commission senior reservoir engineer Jack Hartz told the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority board late last year that the commission has been looking at the gas off-take issue since about 1999 or 2000. While gas sales rates of 4.5 bcf a day have been discussed for a pipeline to the Lower 48, the commission needs an application to evaluate higher off-take rates, and has received no such application, he said.
Hartz said the commission has had “reasonable but nominal cooperation from the Prudhoe owners” on the issue so far, and is looking forward to “significant cooperation” with momentum building for a gas pipeline.
Commissioner Dan Seamount told the ANGDA board that determining a reasonable off-take rate and when that off-take rate could occur without affecting oil recovery, will be the commission’s “core work. This is the biggest project we will be looking at,” he said, and is expected to take a couple of years.
The commission wants to develop a work plan with gas owners to ensure conservation issues are evaluated before gas depletion plans are final, Hartz told the ANGDA board, and would like to rule on an application for an initial gas depletion plan prior to equipment and pipe orders for a pipeline. This will be first in a series of hearings The commission said it will hold “a series of hearings to gather and examine relevant information, addressing a number of issues including:
• The impact of allowable gas off-take rate on total hydrocarbon recovery;
• The impact of gas sales timing on total hydrocarbon recovery; and
• Depletion plans including mitigation measures to minimize losses.
The initial hearing will address current availability of information relating to these issues, additional information needs, a means for obtaining information needed and elements and timing of a work plan to carry out the inquiry, “including evaluation of a depletion plan to ensure that waste of hydrocarbon resources will not occur.”
The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. at the commission’s offices, 333 W. 7th Ave., Suite 100, Anchorage.
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