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ConocoPhillips gets new NPR-A well permit, proposes 2 wells south of Kuparuk
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
ConocoPhillips Alaska is advancing permitting for wells in the west and also the central North Slope.
The company received another drilling permit for work in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Jan. 7. The Scout No. 1 well is in section 20, township 11 north, range 1 east, Umiat Meridian, about a mile southwest of the U.S. Navy’s 1949 Fish Creek test well, which was drilled to 7,020 feet and pumped on test 10 barrels a day of heavy black oil from 2,920 feet and 3,060 feet, with additional shows of oil below 5,400 feet. This well was drilled near the apex of a gravity high, and the U.S. Geological Survey reported that the well penetrated a little more than 7,000 feet of Cretaceous shales and a small amount of siltstone and fine grain sandstone.
Some three miles to the northwest of the proposed Scout 1 is the West Fish Creek No. 1, where oil and gas shows were found in 1977 by Husky Oil NPR-A Operations which drilled to 11, 427 feet. Central North Slope ConocoPhillips is also proposing the Winter Trails No. 5 and No. 6 wells some two miles southeast of drill site 1J on the southern edge of the Kuparuk River unit. The company told the state that approximately 3.1 miles of ice roads and two ice drilling pads would be used to drill as many as two wells and two sidetracks for an exploration/stratographic test drilling program in the 2003-04 winter season. The West Sak reservoir is the target.
These wells at the southeast corner of the Kuparuk River unit appear to be in one of the unit expansion areas, where wells are required this drilling season to hold the acreage. That expansion area is defined as tracts 160-163, and ConocoPhillips told the state in May that it was committing to drill two wells in the area, one on tract 160 or 161 and the other on tract 162 or 163, both by June 1, 2004.
When the state approved the unit expansion in 2002 it said the area north of this expansion area, “has a long history of West Sak formation evaluation programs,” with exploration beginning in the area in 1975 and a waterflood pilot program in 1983. The Winter Trails No. 1 well was drilled in the area in 1986 and the Winter Trails No. 4 in 1987.
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