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Phillips applies to expand Kuparuk River unit to include all of Meltwater Participating area application also filed; unit expansion would add 11,367 acres; state told area to east of Meltwater has “significant exploration potential” Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Phillips Alaska Inc. has applied to the Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas to expand the Kuparuk River unit and to create a new participating area for the Meltwater development at the southwest corner of Kuparuk. Phillips, the operator at Kuparuk and Meltwater, has also told the state that the two leases to the east of the proposed Meltwater participating area are considered to have potential.
The proposed Meltwater participating area would include 6,219 acres and the proposed Kuparuk River expansion, sections 19-36 of township 8 north range 7 east, Umiat meridian, is 11,367 acres, which would bring that unit to 384,539 acres.
The proposal would add two leases, ADL 389058 and ADL 389059, to the Kuparuk River unit. These tracts are side-by-side adjacent to the southern edge of the southwest corner of the unit.
The proposed participating area for Meltwater includes most of the more westerly of the two leases proposed for addition, and most of the lease to the north. More potential in the area Phillips said the proposed participating area “includes the portions of the Meltwater formation currently known to contain hydrocarbons.”
The portions of leases included in the participating area will be developed in 2001 and 2002, targeting hydrocarbons discovered in the Meltwater exploration program.
The unit expansion area, including a lease to the east not part of the proposed Meltwater participating area, “is viewed as having significant exploration potential in the same, or similar geologic horizons as the Meltwater discovery,” Phillips told the state.
Initial production from Meltwater — the pad and pipelines were installed this past winter — is planned for the fourth quarter of 2001, but could occur as early as the third quarter, Phillips said. The company has requested approval effective June 1 to allow for the possibility that production may begin in the third quarter. Bermuda, Cairn intervals Phillips has recommended that both the Bermuda and the Cairn intervals of the Meltwater sands be included in the definition of the Meltwater reservoir, a sequence of reservoir sandstones and associated mudstones between 4,958 feet and 5,368 feet true vertical depth in the 2A Meltwater North exploration well. The reservoir is stratigraphically within the Seabee formation.
The Meltwater discovery wells were drilled in 2000, and the 1 Meltwater North exploration well tested the Bermuda formation at approximately 4,000 barrels of oil per day following fracture stimulation. Recoverable oil is estimated at 52 million barrels.
Oil in the Cairn interval was penetrated at the 4 Tarn exploration well approximately 10 miles north of Meltwater but the permeability at that location was too low for economic development, Phillips said.
The Tarn discovery wells were drilled in 1997 and in early 1998 120 square miles of 3-D seismic survey was shot south of Tarn field. Phillips said the entire unit expansion area has 3-D seismic coverage.
“Interpreted seismic data suggests that a prospective channel feature in the Cairn interval exists in the Meltwater development area,” Phillips told the state. “This channel feature may have improved reservoir quality as compared to Tarn 4 due to a more proximal location to the sediment source.”
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