AOGCC approves Kuparuk oil pool expansion

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has approved a request from ConocoPhillips Alaska for an amended order expanding the areal extent of the Kuparuk River oil pool.

The request, filed in March, was for inclusion of section 22 in township 13 north, range 3 east, Umiat Meridian, in the Kuparuk River oil pool. The requested expansion area is part of the Kuparuk River unit and is included in the AOGCC’s Kuparuk area injection order.

The commission said in a June 29 decision that the issue was discovered when it reviewed a permit to drill application for ConocoPhillips Alaska’s proposed KRU 3M-23A well and associated laterals. It was determined that some of the laterals would extend outside of the pool area, which would require spacing exceptions for the laterals to be drilled.

At that time, the commission said, it was discovered that KRU 3M-27 and a subsequent redrill, KRU 3M-27A, and lateral branches drilled from KRU 3M-27A were also outside the pool area.

Those wells have been in production for 24 years, and during that time the reservoir pressure at the wells has agreed with other pressure measurements in this portion of the Kuparuk River oil pool.

“A geologic cross section extending from KRU 3M-27 to wells inside the defined KROP affected area clearly demonstrates that the producing sands extend across the KROP boundary,” the commission said. Seismic interpretation also shows the KRU 3M-23A and KRU 3M-27A “are in the same fault block as KROP wells KRU 3M-12 and KRU 3M-20.”

Fluid property data for the 3M-27 and 3M-27A wells aligns with fluid properties in other portions of the KROP.

“Geological, geophysical, production, and reservoir data clearly demonstrate that CPAI’s proposed expansion area is in communication with the KROP, and thus expanding the affected area is appropriate,” the commission said.

- KRISTEN NELSON