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Explorers 2011: Repsol applies for Qugruk unit
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News, Oct. 30, 2011
Repsol E&P USA Inc. has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for formation of the 98,852-acre Qugruk on the North Slope. (See map on page 18 at http://bit.ly/sjXPJc.)
Repsol, 70 & 148 LLC and GMT Exploration Co. LLC jointly proposed formation of the unit. The three together hold 91.5 percent of the working interest within the proposed unit area.
Other leaseholders in the proposed unit are: Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., Anadarko Petroleum Co., ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Paul L. Craig and Peter G. Zamarello. The unit agreement has been executed by Repsol, 70 & 148 and GMT. Repsol said it has offered the other leaseholders the right to join the unit and is awaiting their response.
The proposed unit, in somewhat of a T shape, is between the Colville River unit to the south and west, the Oooguruk unit to the south and east and the proposed Placer and South Miluveach units to the south. The northern limit of the proposed unit is the boundary between state waters and the federal outer continental shelf.
One-year plan The initial plan of exploration is for one year and includes four wells. Repsol proposed a bond payable to DNR to ensure that work begins, with DNR to release the bond to Repsol when the first exploration well spuds. Repsol said the unit working interest owners agree to having the unit terminate if the first well is not drilled during the 2011-12 drilling season.
Prospective intervals to be tested by the exploration program include but are not limited to the Cervelo, Judy Creek, Nechelik, Nuiqsut and Alpine sandstones within the Jurassic Kingak shale, and the Cretaceous Kuparuk C sandstone (Kup C), Torok formation and Nanushuk Group.
The four planned wells are the Qugruk 1 in section 28 of township 13 north, range 6 east, Umiat Meridian, with a proposed true vertical depth of 7,100; the Qugruk 2, in section 25 of township 13 north, range 6 east, UM, with a proposed TVD of 7,000 feet; Qugruk 3, in section 31, township 12 north, range 6 east, UM, with a proposed TVD of 7,150 feet; and Qugruk 4, in section 15 of township 13 north, range 4 east, UM, with a proposed TVD of 8,300 feet.
Repsol said the sequence in which the wells are drilled may be changed and the location and drilling depth of subsequent wells may be adjusted following drilling of prior wells.
In its permitting paperwork Repsol has indicated that it may drill one vertical well and as many as two sidetracks at each location. It is also permitting the Kachemach exploration well farther south outside of the proposed unit area and just east of the Meltwater participating area of the Kuparuk River unit.
Kingak, Kup C, Nanushuk group There have been many exploration wells drilled in the area surrounding the proposed unit, including six wells within the proposed unit, beginning in 1966 and extending through to 2008, Repsol said in its unit application.
Primary objectives for the proposed unit are sands within the upper portion of the Jurassic Kingak Shale, the Cretaceous Kup C sand and several sands within the Cretaceous Nanushuk Group. Two sands in the J-2 interval of the Kingak shale are informally termed the Cervelo and Judy Creek sands, the Nechelik sand, the Nuiqsut sand and the Alpine A and C sands.
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