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BP expanding North Slope Northstar unit Additional area, some 455 acres, would cover proposed Hooligan participating area; sale of Northstar to Hilcorp Alaska under way Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
As BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. works to close a sale of its Northstar unit to Hilcorp Alaska LLC, the British major is looking to expand the offshore North Slope oil field.
The expansion would give unit operator BP and its minority partner Murphy Exploration (Alaska) Inc. their desired boundaries for a proposed Hooligan participating area by incorporating some 454.62 acres from two State of Alaska leases into the unit.
Northstar straddles the boundary between state and federal waters in the area north of Point Storkerson. Given its location, BP must seek approval from both the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The leases, ADL 312798 and ADL 312808, hug the southern border of the unit. BP owns both leases outright. Murphy owns a small working interest in two existing leases at the unit - ADL 312799 and OCS-Y-0181 - that would also join the participating area.
BP initially requested the Hooligan participating area in late June 2012. The company provided additional information to regulators in February and April 2013. The BSEE approved the participating area in February 2014. The DNR has yet to rule on the request.
With the expansion, the Northstar unit would cover a total of 20,134.70 acres.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments through Sept. 22.
Hooligan State and federal regulators approved the Northstar unit in January 1990 and the Northstar participating area in October 2001. The agreement included a provision requiring any acreage outside the participating area to contract after 10 years.
By forming the Fido participating area around federal lease OCS-Y-0181, BP was able to reduce the extent of the contraction in the northeast of the unit. But regulators contracted portions of ADL 312798, ADL 312808 and ADL 312809 along the southern border.
The Northstar unit primarily produces from the Ivishak formation. But around November 2010, BP plugged the NS-08 well above the Ivishak to produce from the shallower Kuparuk formation on a tract basis. Using that well and information from other Ivishak wells at the unit, all of which have passed through Kuparuk formation, BP mapped out the Hooligan field. The proposed Hooligan participating area would cover the Kuparuk formation at Northstar. Except for the requested expansion acreage, the reservoir exists entirely within the existing aerial boundaries of the Northstar unit and participating area.
With approval of the Hooligan participating area, BP said it would continue to test the Kuparuk formation at Northstar through its current development plan, into 2015.
In April 2014, BP sold the Northstar and Endicott units and 50 percent interest in the Milne Point and Liberty units to Hilcorp. The sale is scheduled to close by the end of the year. The deal would make Hilcorp the operator of Northstar, Endicott and Milne Point.
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