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Methane hydrate work on North Slope to be extended to 2028
Kristen Nelson
ASRC Energy Services Alaska has received authority from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas to extend its methane hydrate production test program at the 7-11-12 pad on the North Slope through August 2028.
In a June 26 plan of operations amendment decision the division said that during the additional time the company will do rig workovers on the PTW-1 well to prepare for plugging and abandonment activities, "run a completion in well PTW-2 with artificial means, modify existing facilities for the new completion in PTW-2, and flow test the PTW-2 well for approximately one year."
The 7-11-12 pad is in the Prudhoe Bay unit, operated by Hilcorp North Slope.
The division said AES and Hilcorp have agreed to extend the existing drilling agreement.
Activities will include:
*Rig workover;
*Flow test;
*Plugging and abandonment of all test wells;
*Deconstruction of modules and other facilities; and
*Demobilizing from the 7-11-12 pad.
Methane hydrate Methane hydrate is a solid in which molecules of methane, the primary component of natural gas, are concentrated inside a lattice of water molecules, with vast quantities known to exist around the base of the permafrost under the North Slope.
Gas is released from hydrates by a combination of raising the temperature or reducing the pressure.
In a presentation to the Alaska Senate Resources Committee in 2023, division Director Derek Nottingham cited data from the U.S. Geological Survey which has estimated an undiscovered resource of 53.8 trillion cubic feet of gas within hydrates on the North Slope.
Earlier testing completed The U.S. Department of Energy said last August that production testing began in September 2023 and was completed in July 2024.
AES has been conducting the project as part of an international team: DOE partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey, Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.
The existence of extensive oil and gas infrastructure and large quantities of hydrates onshore make the North Slope a particularly suitable place to test gas production from hydrates. Earlier North Slope test wells were drilled in 2007 and 2011.
Recent sustained gas production is from test wells drilled in 2018-19 and 2022-23, with production testing in 2023 and 2024.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data show four hydrate wells, the earliest (Hydrate 01, drilled in 2018-19) is shown as suspended; the other three (Hydrate P1, drilled 2022-23; Hydrate P2, drilled 2022-22; and Hydrate 02, drilled 2022-22) are exploratory wells classified as single completion gas wells.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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