|
Hilcorp reactivating Baker platform
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska is in the process of reactivating the Baker platform in Cook Inlet, with gas production back online and planning under way to bring oil production back online.
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said in a May 28 area injection order that Hilcorp intends to utilize two wells on the platform for injection “which consists of pre-charging the reservoir for the planned return of oil production from the Baker platform.”
Hilcorp Alaska spokeswoman Lori Nelson told Petroleum News in a May 30 email that reactivation of the platform is occurring in two phases.
“Phase one involved minor well work and the installation of gas handling facilities. Gas production is now back online,” she said.
The second phase of the reactivation “is currently in the planning stages but will target bringing oil production back online,” Nelson said.
EOR testing for design AOGCC’s order said Hilcorp has requested permission to inject Class II non-hazardous fluids “specifically produced water from production operations and storm water from secondary containment areas on the Baker platform” to re-establish enhanced oil recovery “injection and resulting production on the Baker platform.”
Oil production at the platform would be from the Middle Ground Shoal oil pools, the commission said, and results of the EOR test “are important to the design of Hilcorp’s plans for redevelopment of the Middle Ground Shoal oil pools accessed by Baker Platform wells.”
“Installing power generation, oil processing facilities and various upgrades will all be part of phase two,” Nelson said.
The platform was shut down in June 2003, AOGCC said, with platform surface equipment “purged/cleaned of hydrocarbons and most of the equipment removed from the platform.”
Production began in 1965 The previous operator, Unocal Alaska Resources, said in late 2002 that production from the Baker platform began in 1965. Unocal said when the platform was shut in that it had reached its economic limit and was no longer profitable.
Baker was the second platform to be installed in Cook Inlet, after Platform A, which is also at Middle Ground Shoal.
Unocal’s other platform in the Middle Ground Shoal field, Dillon, was shut down at about the same time as the Baker Platform. The two other platforms in the field, A and C, have remained in production; they are operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy.
Amoco was the original operator of the Baker and Dillon platforms; Shell was the originally operator of the A and C platforms.
Hilcorp Alaska acquired Chevron’s Cook Inlet assets — including the Baker platform — in 2011 and is in the process of reworking them to increase production.
| 