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AOGCC issues rules for Hansen oil pool
Spacing exception issue settled; natural gas flaring volumes OK’d by commission; BlueCrest doesn’t get extended BOP testing period Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
BlueCrest Alaska now has pool rules from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for the Hansen oil pool at Cosmopolitan, an offshore accumulation in Cook Inlet which the company is developing from an onshore pad. After hearings which began in August and were completed in October, AOGCC issued the pool rules, which define basic operating parameters for the field, on Nov. 25.
BlueCrest had been operating Hansen under AOGCC’s statewide rules, which required it to submit spacing exceptions for the fishbone lateral well branches it was drilling. When the commission received 25 requests for spacing exceptions for those fishbone laterals in early June - which if granted would have resulted in 63 spacing exceptions having been issued for the Hansen wells - the commission scheduled a public hearing to establish pool rules for development and operation of the Hansen oil pool at Cosmopolitan. With pool rules, spacing exceptions are not required within the defined pool area, as long as drilling is not within 500 feet of a boundary where ownership changes, in this case the boundary of the unit.
Cosmopolitan history The commission said hydrocarbons were discovered at Cosmopolitan in 1967 in the Pennzoil Oil Starichkof State 1, an offshore well drilled to a depth of 12,112 feet in what the commission said was informally named the Starichkof Sand, within the lower Tyonek formation.
Phillips Alaska Inc. directionally drilled the Hansen 1 from onshore in 2001, confirming the presence of oil and followed that with a directional redrill of the Hansen 1, the Hansen 1A, which tested at rates up to 1,000 barrels per day.
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc. drilled the Hansen 1AL1 well branch from the Hansen 1A in 2007, and fracture stimulated that well branch in 2010.
Buccaneer Alaska Operations LLC, then the operator, drilled the offshore Cosmopolitan State 1 in 2013.
BlueCrest acquired 100% working interest at Cosmopolitan in 2014 and began its development program with the Hansen H-14 and Hansen H-16 wells in 2017. While the wells were fracture stimulated, the commission said production rates were low.
The company then developed “the technique of drilling multiple ‘fish-bone’ well branches upward through the reservoir from each primary well,” with three wells drilled or redrilled since then (Hansen H-12, Hansen H16A and Hansen H-04) with 20 supplementary well branches, the commission said.
Hansen oil pool The pool rules define the Hansen oil pool as the hydrocarbon accumulation common to and correlative with the accumulation in the Cosmopolitan State 1 well between 6,538 and 7,312 feet measured depth within the sections of townships 3 and 4, range 15, Seward Meridian, listed in the order.
“Eliminating spacing requirements, except for a minimum set-back distance from lease boundaries where landownership or ownership changes, will improve ultimate recovery while protecting correlative rights,” the commission said. This is the provision which eliminates the need for spacing exceptions for each of the fishbone laterals.
BlueCrest also requested a waiver of gas-oil-ratio requirements in the commission’s regulations, and the commission found that waiver was necessary so the company could continue to gather data to evaluate future development options and determine viability of initiating an enhanced oil recovery project. That waiver is through Dec. 31, 2021. Prior to that the operator must submit an application for an extension of the waiver, initiate an enhanced oil recovery project or apply for a permanent waiver.
BlueCrest requested an increase in the time between blowout preventer tests from two weeks to three weeks while drilling production sections within the reservoir, telling the commission that on occasion it has had to pull out of well branches to do BOP tests, and because of the time required to get in and out of the hole the company said there were instances where it was not economic to return to drill that lateral, so production was lost because the company won’t be able to tap that oil.
The commission said it found that request was not warranted.
BlueCrest also requested simplification of permit to drill requirements and the commission said that was warranted only for development well branches within the Hansen oil pool.
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