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Work continues on NPR-A legacy
wells; focus on most problematic
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The federal Bureau of Land Management is continuing to deal with old abandoned legacy wells on the North Slope, primarily in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The wells, many of which were not properly plugged, were drilled by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey between 1944 and 1982. The Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, with oversight of well safety in Alaska, has for a number of years been pushing for the appropriate remediation of the wells. BLM, the federal agency that manages the NPR-A, is responsible for the remediation.
During a July 11 AOGCC public meeting, BLM officials described the most recent well remediation project in the NPR-A and discussed with the commissioners continuing plans for further remediation work.
136 wells BLM originally listed a total of 136 wells that required attention. In 2013 the agency identified 68 wells that by then had either been cleaned up or did not require further action. And the U.S. Geological Survey was using 18 of the wells for climate monitoring.
Dealing with the wells is expensive and logistically challenging, especially given the remote nature of the territory in which the wells were drilled and the vast area of land across which the wells are scattered. During the AOGCC meeting Rob Brumbaugh, BLM Alaska oil and gas section chief, commented that the general approach to the remediation effort is to focus on high priority wells that present significant environmental hazards, while also dealing with clusters of nearby wells.
Last winter’s project In the past winter a contractor working for BLM tackled a cluster of five wells deep inside the NPR-A, to the west of Umiat. The wells involved consisted of the Square Lake No. 1, the Wolfe Creek Nos. 1 to 3, and the Titaluk No. 1. The wells had been drilled by the U.S. Navy between 1951 and 1952, in a search for oil and gas resources, Jessie Chmielowski, BLM senior petroleum engineer, told the commission.
The project involved staging equipment at the Meltwater 2P pad before using appropriate vehicles to move the equipment, including a mini-rig, to the remote well sites. The journey from the pad to the first of the wells took 10 days, Chmielowski said. It took another 24 days to complete the work on the wells, and six days to return to the staging pad, she said. Food supplies were flown to the field team using a ski equipped aircraft.
Work at the wells involved surface excavation, the installation of cement plugs to the surface, the trimming off and plating of the top of the surface casing, and then backfilling the excavation. Although four of the wells had encountered little more than gas shows, the Wolfe Creek No. 1 had found a gas pool and had produced gas at a little under 1 million cubic feet per day, Chmielowski said. Ensuring that there would be no continuing leakage of gas from that particular well involved building up the fluid level in the well before emplacing a cement plug, she said.
Funding for the work Funding of $50 million for the BLM legacy well program has come from the Helium Act, passed by Congress in 2013. Work carried out with the Helium Act funding, including the five-well program conducted in the past winter, has brought total expenditure to around $44 million, Brumbaugh said (some $2 million has been sequestered and is unavailable for the work). Unfortunately, the $4 million that remains and is allocated for fiscal year 2019 is insufficient to achieve much, he said. However, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has secured an additional $10 million in funding, he said (she was also responsible for the $50 million in the Helium Act).
One complication is that five of the legacy wells, including the Gubik No. 2 well, a high priority well that is releasing gas, lie in Arctic Slope Regional Corp. land, rather than in the NPR-A. The $4 million remaining from the Helium Act funding, can only be used for projects inside NPR-A, Brumbaugh said.
However, other high priority wells, including the Simpson core 26 and the Iko Bay well, are inside the NPR-A.
Brumbaugh said that he could not comment on which wells BLM may tackle next, given that the agency has not yet put out a task order for the work. He did confirm that the Simpson No. 1 well, west of Smith Bay, is one focus of attention. That particular well needs to be plugged and is near a cluster of other wells, including several Simpson core test wells.
Lost wells There was some discussion about four so-called “lost wells,” old Navy wells whose approximate locations are known but which cannot be found. Brumbaugh said that BLM has access to photographs used in 1952 in conjunction with the development of quad maps. One strategy is to find evidence of the well locations on these photos, as a guide to the exact well locations. If that approach fails, an alternative possibility may be to use ground penetrating radar to detect the metalwork known to exist in the wells, he said.
Commissioner Cathy Foerster commented that one lost well of particular concern is the J.W. Dalton No. 1 well, on the Beaufort Sea Coast north of Teshekpuk Lake, a well that was known to have been leaking gas.
Temperature monitoring wells Foerster also commented that, while there is no intent to require the plugging of the 18 wells that the USGS is using for temperature monitoring, so long as the wells are in use, AOGCC is concerned to ensure that the wells are actually being used and that they are safe. She said that she would like USGS to report on its well usage, and for USGS and BLM to submit a plan for determining the mechanical integrity of the wells.
Brumbaugh commented that one of the temperature monitoring wells, the Tulageak well, about 20 miles east of Utqiagvik, is a particular worry because of its vulnerability to coastal erosion. In five years or so it will probably become necessary to plug that well. The plugging operation would likely cost around $22 million to $25 million and would tie up a season of well remediation work, he said, adding that BLM has already started to prime Washington for the future need for the money for the project.
There was discussion about the need to try to deal with the Iko Bay well, a well that a contractor made an abortive attempt to plug in 2016. There are questions over whether that well can now be plugged effectively. And nothing is currently being planned because there is litigation in progress regarding the 2016 project - the contractor wants to be paid but they haven’t completed the work, Chmielowski said.
Surface cleanups There was also discussion about the need for surface cleanups at well sites, an important issue but an issue over which the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation rather than AOGCC has jurisdiction. Although BLM clears up surface debris when remediating legacy wells and has identified a number of high priority surface contamination sites, the surface locations will probably not be tackled until the high priority wells have been dealt with, Chmielowski said.
Foerster said that she has a list of 18 wells that still require attention.
- ALAN BAILEY
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