HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS PAY HERE

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
June 2019

Vol. 24, No.25 Week of June 23, 2019

Seismic surge

Big 3-D seismic surveys in works for North Slope, nearshore Beaufort Sea

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

Renewed interest in the North Slope of Alaska’s untapped oil has led to an increase in large 3-D seismic surveys, including the program for the ANWR 1002 area, for which Inupiat Geophysical Partnership could have a permit in hand prior to this year’s federal lease sale.

All but one of the big new surveys have been, or will be, conducted by SAExploration of Anchorage. In recent correspondence with Jeff Hastings, SAE chairman and CEO, Joe Balash, assistant secretary of Land and Minerals Management, and a review of 3-D seismic permit filings with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Petroleum News put together the following seismic update (see related map on page 15 of this issue).

Marsh Creek 3-D Program

In mid-2018, SAE filed approvals on behalf of itself and its partners to conduct a 3-D seismic survey in the narrow strip of coast along the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which makes up the 2,600-square-mile 1002 area that was set aside for potential development by Congress because of its hydrocarbon-rich geology.

The Marsh Creek 3-D survey was initially expected to begin during the winter season of 2018-19 and finish the following winter.

SAE, Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. through SAE’s joint venture with Kuukpik Corp., Kuukpik-SAE, formed Inupiat Geophysical.

The 35-day federal government shutdown between 2018 and 2019 necessitated a change in dates in the permit; now the seismic is expected to be acquired this coming winter.

Although there is no substitute for seismic, CGG Canada Services told the U.S. Department of Interior that it intends to fly over the 1002 area to collect geophysical data, per a June 19 Reuters report by Yereth Rosen. CGG uses gravity gradiometry technology, which “measures minute changes of surface gravitational qualities to use as clues to subsurface structures.”

The company does not need any federal authorizations, an Interior official told Rosen.

“SAE still has a seismic permit pending and continues to work with USFWS. As I understand their plans, they would like to have a permit in hand prior to the lease sale (expected to be held near the end of the year). Of course, there is no way to conduct the seismic program ahead of the sale unless we delay it for nearly a year,” Balash told Petroleum News in a June 19 email. “What Yereth is referring to is an effort to get at least some information out ahead of the sale - it would be better than nothing, but not the kind of information one would get from seismic.”

To date, only one well has been drilled in the ANWR 1002 area - the onshore KIC well, drilled in 1985 and 1986 by operator Chevron and partner BP from surface land owned by Kaktovik Inupiat, the Native village corporation for Kaktovik, and into the subsurface oil and gas mineral rights owned by Arctic Slope Regional, the Native regional corporation for northern Alaska - both SAE partners in the seismic survey.

Barrow Arch 3-D Marine Seismic

The massive nearshore Barrow Arch 3-D Marine Seismic Survey was recently “cancelled and postponed by the applicant” TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co., a DNR official said June 17.

Per the original permit application, ocean-bottom node vessel operations/logistics and data acquisition will be managed and operated by SAE.

The two-year Barrow Arch survey in the Beaufort Sea would cover 905 square miles, with about 620 square miles in federal waters and 285 square miles in state waters. It extends from eastern Harrison Bay, offshore the Colville River Delta, eastward to about four miles east of Oliktok Point, encompassing an area of high hydrocarbon potential.

SAE Staines 3-D

The land and marine seismic survey known as the SAE Staines 3-D that abuts the ANWR 1002 area is “still pending,” Hastings said.

The primary state permit was issued on Dec. 31 by the Division of Oil and Gas to run for five months to no later than May 31. SAE postponed the survey until next winter.

The area to be surveyed is 673 square miles along the west side of the Staines River on the eastern North Slope.

The permit is limited to state acreage.

BPXA Greater Prudhoe Bay

The 455-square-mile BPXA Greater Prudhoe Bay 3-D Seismic Survey was completed this year, per Hastings.

BP Exploration Alaska is setting the stage to comb the area for smaller oil pools it can target with advanced drilling techniques over the next decade or so, with an eye on adding new production from the 42-year-old field.

The key to the effort is the massive 3-D seismic survey conducted by SAE that BP’s top executive in Alaska Janet Weiss describes as the largest 3-D survey ever done at Prudhoe.

SAE Kuukpik 3-D

One-third of the SAE Kuukpik 3-D seismic survey was completed this past winter and the rest will be finished next winter, Hastings said.

The 490-square-mile survey is on the east side of the Colville River, extending south from the Horseshoe No. 1 well where Armstrong Energy discovered oil in the Nanushuk formation in 2017.

The leases involved are held by Oil Search, Repsol, ConocoPhillips, Pantheon, Great Bear and SAE.

In a March press release area explorer 88 Energy mentioned “a multi-client 3-D seismic acquisition” planned in the same vicinity.

SAE Gas Hydrate VSP

Kuukpik-SAE finished the Gas Hydrate Vertical Seismic Profile survey this year, Hastings said.

The 11-square-miles program was around the new methane hydrate well that was completed in January in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay unit.

See the March 17 Petroleum News article, “Partnership plans methane hydrate testing” for additional information.






Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469
[email protected] --- https://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)Š1999-2019 All rights reserved. The content of this article and website may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law.