Hilcorp applies to Corps to expand L Pad

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Hilcorp North Slope, the Prudhoe Bay unit operator, has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expand L Pad in the Western Satellite area at Prudhoe.

Development drilling from L Pad is ongoing.

In a July proposed amendment for the Western Satellites 2021 plan of development, Hilcorp told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas it anticipated completing as many as six new drill wells within the Orion participating area, as many as three producers and one injector from L Pad and up to one producer and one injector from Z Pad.

That drilling was planned for existing pad areas.

In July, Hilcorp applied to the division “to drill up to five boreholes in tundra adjacent to L Pad” at Prudhoe. In approving the request, an amendment of the unit plan of operations, the division said: “Future plans for L Pad include a pad expansion and new wells. The purpose of this project is to determine the exact location of these future wells.” The division said the company anticipated starting the borehole project Aug. 15.

The public notice of application for permit from the Corps, dated Aug. 30, said: “The applicant’s stated purpose is to expand the L Pad to accommodate new wells for increased production and oil retrieval.”

The proposed work would place 25,000 cubic yards of clean gravel onto 3.7 acres of wetlands, expanding the pad into an area 300 feet by 530 feet. Comments on the proposal are due by Sept. 29.

An illustration of the work that is part of the Corps public notice shows the expansion off the western end of the pad, with two new well rows, each beginning on the existing pad and expanding onto the new pad surface.

- KRISTEN NELSON