AOGCC OKs new Alpine pool boundaries

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has approved expansion and contraction of the geographic boundaries of the Alpine oil pool.

Alpine is the largest producing area in the Colville River unit, which also includes satellites at Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.

Operator ConocoPhillips Alaska applied to the commission in January for an expansion of the Alpine pool to the west and a contraction on the east.

In a June 15 order the commission said work at the new CD-5 pad at Alpine indicates the productive area of the Alpine oil pool “likely extends beyond the western boundary of the current pool boundaries” while portions of the pool on the eastern edge “do not appear to be contributing to production” and are also on acreage beyond the current boundaries of the Colville River unit.

In May the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas approved an expansion to the west and a contraction to the east of the Alpine participating area - the division’s definition of the productive area within a unit. The division said the change essentially brings recent CD-5 drilling into the participating areas boundaries.

In its decision the commission said ConocoPhillips plans to drill an additional development well in the expanded Alpine oil pool, a well which would have been outside the acreage of the existing pool.

- KRISTEN NELSON