BP begins bringing 137 Prudhoe Bay wells back on line

Kristen Nelson, PNA editor-in-chief

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is beginning to bring 137 Prudhoe Bay wells shut in for testing back on line, the company’s president, Steve Marshall, said Sept. 9.

The wells were shut in in August after an Aug. 16 explosion injured one worker.

Marshall said BP has been testing all the wells it shut in, “satisfying ourselves that we’ve got good integrity on those wells, revising procedures to make sure that the conditions we experienced on the well that had the problem will never be repeated.”

BP had estimated it would shut in 150 wells, some 60,000 barrels per day of production. Marshall said when they looked closely they found only 137 wells that needed to be shut in for testing, some 45,000 bpd of production.

BP believes it knows what caused the A-22 well explosion, and plans to pull the casing from the well “so we can actually do the testing to get to the why — why the well failed,” Marshall said. He said the company is looking at corrosion, mechanical damage, high pressure or a combination of those.

Marshall said BP is working with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Some wells are still being evaluated and BP will “continue to work with the AOGCC to ensure that they’re fully involved and satisfied with the steps we’ve taken both from a testing standpoint and procedurally to make sure that they’re happy with restarts.”

Jim Regg, a petroleum engineer with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, told PNA Sept. 11 that the commission is continuing with its own investigation and expects BP’s final report on the A-22 incident within the week.

Regg said the commission has its inspectors following up. They are randomly selecting wells as BP brings them back online and checking on the startups, he said.