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Revived Osprey exceeds 2,500 boe per day Cook Inlet Energy brings another platform sidetrack online, plans to start drilling grassroots well; Sword No. 1 shows promise Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Cook Inlet Energy LLC recently brought another well online, pushing overall production from its Osprey offshore platform to more than 2,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
That’s a long way from the zero production Osprey had when the company took over the platform in December 2009. At the time, Osprey was dormant and in jeopardy of becoming a ward of the state following the bankruptcy of its prior operator, Pacific Energy Resources Ltd.
Osprey sits in the Redoubt unit, and is the southernmost of the oil and gas platforms in Cook Inlet.
The company said it completed the RU-5B well in mid-October and then put it onstream. Drilled to a final measured depth of 15,750 feet, the well is actually a sidetrack of the RU-5 well.
Repairing damaged Osprey wells with sidetracks and other procedures has been a focus for Cook Inlet Energy in reviving the platform.
The original RU-5 well reportedly had produced mainly water, the company said in an Oct. 31 press release. The new sidetrack was producing about 250 barrels of oil per day and the company was “seeing oil cuts continually improve on a daily basis.”
“As a whole, the Osprey platform is currently producing over 2,500 boepd,” Cook Inlet Energy said.
Grassroots well planned Cook Inlet Energy is a subsidiary of Miller Energy Resources Inc., a publicly traded company based in Tennessee.
The Alaska subsidiary accounts for the great majority of Miller’s production. Miller reported record oil sales of more than 200,000 barrels for the quarter ended Oct. 31.
Cook Inlet Energy has a number of other producing and exploratory properties around the basin, including the onshore West McArthur River oil field and the Otter natural gas prospect.
Aside from the Osprey sidetrack, the company announced more news regarding its plans to drill a new grassroots well on the Osprey platform.
The planned RU-9 well “is intended to achieve oil reserves from a large four-way structure located approximately 2.5 miles southwest of the platform,” Cook Inlet Energy said.
The company expects to spud the well before the end of the year, using its own rig 35.
Sword’s ‘extraordinary potential’ Since June, the company has been pursuing another drilling project on a pad adjacent to its West McArthur River field.
The Sword No. 1 well reached a final measured depth of 18,475 feet on Oct. 23, the company said.
During drilling the well encountered 11 hydrocarbon shows, including shows in the Tyonek gas sands, the Tyonek G (thought to be oil-bearing), and the Hemlock oil zone, the company said.
“With many identified potential zones behind pipe, the company plans to initially perforate 168 feet in the liquid hydrocarbon zones and 66 feet in the gas-bearing zones,” the Oct. 31 press release said. “Third-party reserve reports show approximately 950,000 barrels of oil based on only 43 feet of net pay. The completion on Sword No. 1 has been designed with the flexibility to allow for testing and production through multiple different oil and gas targets.”
Over the next several months, the company said it plans to initially test and produce the Hemlock formation followed by the shallower zones.
“Based on log results, our Sword well has extraordinary potential and we believe it could double the reserves currently reported for the West McArthur field while providing us a launch pad for drilling into Sabre, which is an even larger identified prospect,” said Scott Boruff, chief executive officer for Miller Energy.
Otter unit finalized In late August, state officials conditionally approved the Otter unit, combining parts of four state leases, after Cook Inlet Energy appealed an earlier denial.
On Nov. 1, the state Division of Oil and Gas indicated by letter that the company had met all the conditions for unit approval. These included submitting a modified unit agreement and plan of exploration, and posting a $1.2 million performance bond.
The Otter gas prospect is located about nine miles north of the ConocoPhillips-operated Beluga River gas field.
The company in 2012 drilled an exploratory well, the Otter No. 1, but technical problems plagued the project and the company was unable to reach full depth.
Under the plan of exploration, the company can partially fulfill its unit obligations by re-entering and deepening the Otter No. 1 by March 31.
Cook Inlet Energy said it would start the deepening operation in November.
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