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Conoco applies to expand Alpine oil pool
KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
ConocoPhillips Alaska has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation for an expansion of the Alpine Oil Pool, AOP, to include westward development of the Nanuq Kuparuk sands in anticipation of future development. The commission has tentatively scheduled a public hearing for March 14 at 9 a.m., but said if there are no timely requests for a hearing it may issue an order without a hearing.
In a Jan. 30 application, ConocoPhillips Alaska applied to expand the western side of the AOP to conform to the Colville River unit boundary. Six full sections of land would be added on the western boundary of the AOP. The company also requested that 16 full and partial sections be contracted from the AOP on the eastern side of the pool to conform to the unit boundary.
“Extending the AOP westward into the Umiat Meridian T10N R3E Sections 2-3 and T11N R3E Sections 22, 27, 34, 35, will allow development drilling of up to two additional Kuparuk sand wells: CD5-314X and depending on results, potentially CD5-316,” the company said.
ConocoPhillips said the proposed boundary changes in the AOP correspond to the sixth expansion of the Colville River unit, approved by royalty owners and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in July 2016.
CD5 pad The western expansion of the AOP “will extend the pool to include the western extension of the Nanuq Kuparuk reservoir for development from the CD5 pad,” the company said, with as many as two wells possible in 2017.
Nanuq Kuparuk production began from the CD4 pad in late 2006, the company said. Four producers and five injectors were drilled from CD4. The CD5-313 producer and CD5-315 injector were completed in 2015 “in the continuation of the Nanuq Kuparuk trend to the west,” with roughly 30 million barrels produced from the Nanuq Kuparuk reservoir as of the date of the application, ConocoPhillips said.
The company said continuation of the Nanuq Kuparuk reservoir westward to the expansion area “is largely tied to encouraging results from the CD5-315 lateral.”
ConocoPhillips brought the CD5 pad online in October 2015. It is the first drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to go into production and is the first commercial oil development on Alaska Native lands within the boundaries of NPR-A.
All wells from the pad are planned to be horizontal, the company said in 2015. Alpine is the farthest west producing field on the North Slope and CD5 is the farthest west production at Alpine, and the fifth pad serving that field.
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.
Crude oil from CD5 is processed at the Alpine Production Facilities.
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