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OIL PATCH INSIDER Brooks Range spuds second North Slope exploration well; Agrium delays Nikiski startup
BRPC Group has spud its second well of the season on Alaska’s North Slope, the group’s operator, Brooks Range Petroleum Corp., told Petroleum News. Nabors Alaska Drilling Rig 27-E spud the Sak River No. 1 well on March 16.
“This is the second Nabors rig under contract to BRPC; the Nabors Rig 16-E is currently drilling the North Shore No. 1 well,” BRPC Group said.
The Sak River No. 1 well will test “oil prospects” on state lease ADL 390431 which was acquired by one of the group’s joint venture partners and Brooks Range Petroleum parent, AVCG LLC, at the 2003 Beaufort Sea State of Alaska areawide oil and gas lease sale.
Other partners in BRPC Group include TG World Energy Inc., Bow Valley Alaska Corp. and Ramshorn Investments Inc.
The surface location of Sak River No. 1 is an onshore ice pad “accessed via a six-mile ice road, which departs the existing gravel road infrastructure heading north from the Prudhoe Bay Unit S Pad drillsite.”
The well is expected to be drilled “deviating northeast from the surface location to a bottomhole location 13,100 feet measured depth (11,500 feet sstvd) to test the prospects lying under the Gwydyr Bay,” BRPC Group said.
BRPC Group decided to drill the Sak River No. 1 well from an onshore surface location to an offshore bottomhole location so that the well could be retained as a development well if successful.
“An onshore development in this area reduces the potential impacts to the environment and will allow development permits to be obtained in a more timely fashion. The well is scheduled to take approximately 22 days to drill to reach total depth in the Ivishak formation,” BRPC Group said. The well is being drilled “to test stacked oil prospects in the Kuparuk and Ivishak zones. The prospects are viewed as simple structural closures with upside stratigraphic trapping potential, as mapped on 3-D seismic data.”
Doug Hastings, BRPC’s vice president of exploration, said: “The Sak River No. 1 is the first test of our Gwydyr prospect. The most recent exploration wells in the region were drilled in 1997. The JV partners control 47,866 acres in the region and we are currently acquiring proprietary 3-D seismic data to evaluate on-trend leads analogous to the Sak River No. 1 prospect as well as our North Shore prospect.”
Agrium delays restart of Nikiski plant due to lack of gas Agrium’s Alaska spokeswoman Lisa Parker told Petroleum News March 21 that the company’s Nikiski fertilizer facility did not open March 1 as expected because natural gas feedstock was not available from local Cook Inlet basin producers.
Southcentral Alaska weather has been unusually cold so local gas has been going to area utilities.
“We have a proposal into the (Cook Inlet) producers to purchase gas at market prices. We’re waiting to hear from them,” Parker said.
Once contracts are in place, Agrium can move forward with re-opening the facility, she said.
In response to rumors that an April 15 date had been set for re-opening, Parker said Agrium had not set a definite date.
—Kay Cashman
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