ConocoPhillips to expand DS 3S at Kuparuk

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

ConocoPhillips Alaska has applied to expand drillsite 3S in the Kuparuk River unit and drill 16 new wells.

In its Feb. 7 application ConocoPhillips said it is proposing to expand the existing DS 3S gravel pad by placing some 65,000 cubic yards of clean gravel fill onto 7.75 acres of tundra. The company is also requesting approval to install 16 new wells.

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In addition to the wells, space is required for the drilling rig, equipment, piping, vertical support members “and other materials associated with the Coyote development,” the company said.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas issued a public notice Feb. 23 for the unit plan of operations amendment application for the work. Comments on the application are due March 23.

An illustration of the proposed work shows the pad being expanded primarily on the eastern end, with some expansion on the southern side of the pad. Sixteen wells are proposed to be added at the pad and the illustration has Doyon 142 named in the expansion area, presumably the rig the company plans to use, or an indication of that or a similar rig.

In related permitting, the company received approval from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Jan. 4 for a three-year enhanced oil recovery pilot at the Coyote reservoir, which is on the western edge of the Kuparuk River unit.

In its approval the commission said the Nanushuk formation was first discovered near the proposed pilot project area in the 1965-66 Sinclair Colville 1 well, some 3 miles south-southwest of 3S pad. Phillips Alaska’s Palm 1 2001 exploration well, drilled from what is now the 3S pad, encountered oil shows in Nanushuk sandstones, the commission said, and also noted that seven development and service wells drilled to deeper reservoirs have penetrated the Coyote interval in or near the planned project area.

The 3S-24B, a 2021 exploratory redrill, penetrated and tested the Coyote interval, AOGCC said.

In its application to the division, ConocoPhillips said the proposed start for gravel work is March 15, with the work proposed to be completed by the end of the year.

Wells are proposed to be drilled beginning March 15, with drilling continuing through the end of 2025.