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Eni has Nikaitchuq rigs cold stacked
Company has production drilling planned, but it has been deferred due to COVID-19, oil price crash; facilities work is continuing
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
In its 13th plan of development for the Nikaitchuq unit, operator and 100% working interest owner Eni told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas that while one oil producer and two dual lateral producers were completed at the Spy Island drilling site under the 12th POD, it has suspended drilling activities temporarily “due to the current oil price climate and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Both rigs at the Nikaitchuq unit, Doyon rig 15 at the Spy Island drilling site and Nordic Calista rig 4 at Oliktok Point pad, are currently in cold stack, Eni said.
No drilling is planned at OPP or SID during the 13th POD, which covers Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. “Actual activities may change as conditions improve,” the company said.
Doyon 15 at SID and Nordic Calista 4 at OPP could be used for workovers, the company said, saying electric submersible pump workovers would be considered at both SID and OPP as ESPs fail.
12th POD drilling In the 12th POD, covering Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30, 2020, Eni drilled one oil producer, SP03-NE2, and two dual lateral producers, SP03-NE2L1 and SP10-FNL1, from the Spy Island drilling site.
Facilities work included commissioning and startup of a multiphase pump at SID to increase production capacity of the newly sleeved 10-inch subsea flowline from SID to OPP. The company also initiated an electrical power sharing study to evaluate interconnecting the Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq power generation systems. Eni, the Nikaitchuq operator, had a 30% interest in Oooguruk and acquired the other 70% and took over as Oooguruk operator in August 2019.
From Sept. 1, 2019, through May 31, 2020, Nikaitchuq oil production averaged some 19,400 barrels per day of oil and 39,600 bpd of water, a 67% water cut, the company said.
From April 24 through May 22, production was prorated by Alyeska Pipeline due to high inventories and averaged some 17,100 bpd of crude.
In June oil production averaged some 20,000 bpd.
In addition to the new producer and one of the new dual laterals, both completed last October, and the second dual lateral, completed in March, Eni did six rig workovers, three each at Spy Island and Oliktok Point, with two involving pulling and running new tubing, one related to electrical failure, one related to a tubing issue, one to upgrade an ESP pump and one for an ESP changeover.
More potential identified SP03-NE2 drilling in the 12th POD included a pilot hole, SP03-NE2 PH, to the northwest, to refine structural interpretation.
“The pilot hole results were positive,” Eni said, “with the structure coming in higher than previously mapped. As a result, current conceptual development plans target six additional wells for the area.”
Facilities plans for the 13th POD include upgrades to support the exploratory NN02 well (see story on page 1 of this issue), two remaining SID injection wells “and the potential six new wells discovered from the SP03-NE2 pilot-hole analysis from the Twelfth POD,” Eni said.
The facility upgrades include a new six-slot well containment shelter and associated well conductors and the requisite well tie-ins.
Drilling Nikaitchuq, which consists of 11 state leases, some 21,200 acres, produces from the Schrader Bluff formation with drilling from two locations, Oliktok Point and Spy Island. Eni said planned OA reservoir drilling from OPP was completed in October of 2012, with continuous drilling beginning on SID in November 2012 with Doyon rig 15.
In 2013 a sidetrack campaign was started, continuing into 2014, adding a second lateral to selected OPP producers. The company said that as part of its 2014 summer drilling at OPP, “an N-Sand evaluation well was drilled. This was the first well drilled by Eni for the sole purpose of evaluating future N-Sand development.”
Eni drilled and completed the first multilateral well with slotted liner main bore and multiple open hole laterals in 2013 with the SP22-FN1 well, the laterals having no mechanical support or hydraulic isolation and dependent on natural borehole stability.
In the 2013 sidetrack campaign, eight laterals were added to OPP in the OA sand and completed with slotted liners.
In the third quarter of 2013, “a second lateral well path was implemented as a strategy for all producer wells on SID,” Eni said.
The OPP producer sidetrack campaign was completed in May 2014. Spy Island development drilling continued in 2014 and during the third quarter the West Extension Project started on SID, a project completed in 2015.
SID development drilling continued in 2015, with the East Extension Project started in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2015 drilling operations were suspended at SID and Doyon 15 was put in cold stack.
The focus of rig activity from the end of 2015 to 2018 was workovers for production maintenance, Eni said. In 2017 a rig modification was carried out on Doyon 15 in preparation for the NN01 exploration well, spudded in December 2017 (see Nikaitchuq exploration well story on page 1 of this issue).
SID dual lateral section drilling was reinitiated in May 2019, with drilling and completion of SP33-W3L1, and continuing with the dual lateral section SP33-W3 L1; a new producer was added to existing SP03-FN6 and its dual lateral SP03-FN6L1 in July 2019.
Facilities During the 13th POD Eni said it would perform routine maintenance and a planned maintenance turnaround in the summer of 2021, “coincident with the planned KRU CPF-3 maintenance turnaround.” The company said details for the turnaround are still being worked out and the duration would be finalized “once KRU has defined the duration of their shutdown.”
Eni said it plans to reduce diesel consumption by “electrifying the drilling rigs at both SID and OPP, as well as converting some building heaters from diesel fired to electric radiant heat.”
There will be additional engineering efforts on the electrical power sharing study on the feasibility of interconnecting the Nikaitchuq and Oooguruk power infrastructures, a move which would “allow more robust and efficient power system sharing between the two development projects.”
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