BlueCrest completes Cosmo well

BlueCrest Alaska Operating LLC has used its new drilling rig to complete the first of its development wells in its Cosmopolitan oil field and has started the drilling of a second well, Benjamin Johnson, BlueCrest president and CEO, told the Alaska House Finance Committee on March 22. Johnson said that the new well is the longest extended reach well ever drilled in the Cook Inlet basin and has resulted in thousands of feet of new net oil pay in the Cosmopolitan field.

BlueCrest subsequently began the drilling of a second well on March 21, Johnson said.

BlueCrest is developing the Cosmopolitan field, offshore under the Cook Inlet, using directional drilling from an onshore site near Anchor Point in the southern Kenai Peninsula. The idea is to drill directionally to the field’s oil reservoir and then horizontally through the reservoir. The horizontal drilling enables considerable distances of net oil pay to be penetrated. The reservoir lies at a vertical depth of 7,000 feet, but BlueCrest anticipates the Cosmopolitan wells attaining measured depths of up to around 24,000 feet. The company has brought in an exceptionally powerful drilling rig to achieve these extreme drilling distances.

BlueCrest started oil production from Cosmopolitan in April 2016 from a converted exploration well. The company’s plan of development for the field indicates an intent to drill up to five development wells. However, the Anchor Point pad can accommodate many more wells than that - there is the potential to drill up to 20 wells, Johnson told House Finance. The drilling operations create 200 to 300 jobs, mostly carried out by Alaskans, he said.

- ALAN BAILEY