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ConocoPhillips brings CD5 online; field is NPR-A’s first production
ConocoPhillips Alaska’s CD5 drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is in production, the company said Oct. 27. CD5 is part of the Alpine field, and is the first commercial oil development on Alaska Native lands within the boundaries of NPR-A, the company said.
It is also the second new ConocoPhillips North Slope drill site to begin production in October: The company announced first oil at Kuparuk Drill Site 2S on Oct. 12.
“First oil at CD5 is a landmark for our company, Kuukpik Corporation, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and for Alaska. This announcement is the culmination of more than 10 years of work and collaboration with key stakeholders, including the residents of the nearby village of Nuiqsut,” Joe Marushack, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in a statement.
CD5 is within NPR-A on land owned by Kuukpik Corp., the village corporation for Nuiqsut, with mineral rights owned largely by Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
CD5 is part of the Colville River unit, operated by ConocoPhillips Alaska, which holds a 78 percent working interest ownership; Anadarko Onshore LE&P LLC holds a 22 percent interest.
The company said four wells are complete at CD5, with development plans calling for 11 more wells by early 2017.
According to an annual status update, all wells will be horizontal, beginning with 13 wells into the Alpine A sand, six production wells and seven injection wells. A producer and injector are also planned for the Nanuq Kuparuk sand.
ConocoPhillips said production from CD5 is expected to peak at 16,000 barrels per day; total project investment is more than $1 billion; and more than 700 direct jobs and hundreds of support jobs were created during peak construction activity.
ConocoPhillips Alaska predecessor Phillips Alaska brought the original Alpine field online in November 2000 from the field’s first drill site which also contains processing facilities. Alpine developed a 1994 discovery by Phillips Alaska predecessor ARCO Alaska. Initial development from the first two drill sites was completed by November 2005 and activity then shifted to satellites at Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik, which ConocoPhillips and its partner Anadarko brought on in August 2006 (Fiord), December 2006 (Nanuq) and 2008 (Qannik).
CD5 develops Alpine West.
Alpine is the farthest west producing field on the North Slope - and CD5 is the farthest west production at Alpine and the fifth drill site serving the field.
Delays for CD5 Regulatory issues related primarily to a bridge crossing of the Nigliq Channel of the Colville River, which ConocoPhillips began permitting in 2005, delayed CD5, with the original application withdrawn in 2008 after officials in Nuiqsut and the North Slope Borough questioned the proposed bridge location.
With agreement from the parties on a new bridge location, ConocoPhillips resubmitted its application in 2009, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit in early 2010, suggesting instead that pipelines for the project be buried beneath the channel, using horizontal directional drilling. ConocoPhillips appealed the ruling and in late 2011 the Corps approved the bridge.
The project was sanctioned in 2012 and construction began with ice roads, gravel haul and bridge construction in 2014. 2015 work included the Nigliq bridge, pipelines, power and facilities at the drill site.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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