Glacier Oil initiates long-term suspension at Redoubt, WMRU

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

At the end of September, Cook Inlet Energy, a Glacier Oil and Gas company, submitted a supplemental notification to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas, telling the agency of its intent to initiate a long-term suspension of oil production operations at the Redoubt unit and the West McArthur River unit, or WMRU, along with the Sword participating area, in the Cook Inlet basin. Approval for the existing suspension of lease operations was granted by the division on June 4.

The change in scope of the current suspension was “due to the longer-term global economic conditions that have negatively impacted operations” of the units, the company said.

Previously, the suspensions were identified as warm shutdowns but have been progressed to cold shutdowns and an unmanned status for Redoubt, WMRU, the Sword PA and the onshore Kustatan production facility.

The current suspensions are projected to remain in effect from Sept. 15 through April 30, 2021, coinciding with the current 20th plan of development for the Redoubt unit and the 29th plan of development for WMRU and the Sword PA that were approved by the division on April 7.

Scope of extended suspensions

1. All producing wells will be shut-in, secured and disconnected from process piping. These wells prior to the shut-in have previously passed no-flow testing per Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulations and can only produce via the means of artificial lift that have been disabled, considerably reducing the risk of spills while the wells remain shut-in.

2. All injection wells will also be shut-in and freeze protected as necessary. They will also be disconnected from process piping. All injection wells are current and have passed mechanical integrity testing.

3. All process piping gathering fluids on the Osprey platform and the site will be evacuated, purged and freeze protected as necessary.

4. The subsea pipelines connecting Osprey to the Kustatan production facility and the cross-country pipelines connecting WMRU to the Kustatan production facility will be purged and cleaned, eliminating the risk of a spill while the unit remains shut-in.

5. The Osprey platform and the camp will be freeze protected and preserved. Access to the platform will be restricted to qualified personnel via helicopter for inspections and maintenance

6. Regarding WMRU, the facility and the camp will be freeze protected and preserved. Access to the site will be restricted to qualified personnel via helicopter for inspections and maintenance. Additional barriers will be put in place at vantage points to restrict access.

7. Also at WMRU, all chemicals, lubricants and wastes will be minimized and removed from the site. A small amount of fuel will be left behind to aid in restarting operations.

8. Any tankage in the WMRU facility will be drained to minimum levels to minimize spill potential. All vessels and tankage are in current standing on internal and external inspections.

9. A small unmanned power generation system will be used for some critical operations at WMRU.

10. CIE west side operations will move from a manned state to an unmanned monitoring state. Monthly on-site inspections will be conducted by qualified personnel to satisfy various state and federal requirements.

Native corporations, Badami

Another Glacier company, Savant Alaska, recently completed a facility turnaround at the eastern North Slope Badami unit.

Badami was put into warm standby in May.

According to Glacier COO David Pascal, as of Oct. 5, Savant is “slowly and safely bringing the facility online. We had a few hiccups with restarting the dormant turbines and had some delays due to poor weather that prevented us from changing crews and getting supplies for several days. We hope to ship oil by mid-week.”

In April, Badami averaged 1,308 barrels of oil per day, Redoubt 1,676 bpd and WMRU’s single well averaged 374 bpd.

- KAY CASHMAN