|
Clock ticks toward Oooguruk startup With all major equipment in place, crews work on wiring and piping in the northern Alaska's first independent-operated oil field Alan Bailey Petroleum News
As our motor boat thumps its way over a low swell in Harrison’s Bay in the Beaufort Sea northwest of the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope, the artificial island of the 70 million-barrel Oooguruk oil field appears like the proverbial dot in the ocean, in the midst of a vast expanse of grey sea and sky. But as we approach the rectangular gravel island, the logistical effort and complexity of developing even a modest sized oil field in such a remote Arctic location become evident.
The massive, dark blue Nabors 19-AC drilling rig dominates one end of the island, while a variety of structures including workshops, storage tanks and crew accommodations cram the remainder of the gravel surface. Eight thousand pale buff bags of gravel, each weighing 13,000 pounds, are stacked in neat rows around the island’s perimeter, to provide protection from the ravages of the sea.
First by an independent Operated by Pioneer Natural Resources and scheduled to go into production in the first quarter of 2008, Oooguruk will be the first oil field in Arctic Alaska operated by an independent oil company rather than an oil major. Pioneer has publicly estimated that peak production for the Oooguruk project will be in the range of 18,000 to 20,000 barrels per day from the Kuparuk and Nuiqsut formations.
And with drilling of production wells slated to start in late October or early November, an army of workers is busy welding pipework and connecting electrical wiring. Crews are currently engaged in hooking up the equipment, explained Pioneer Operations Manager Joey Hall.
“All the major components are here,” Hall said. “… Right now most of the work is electrical work.”
Underneath the drilling rig, shiny new valves and metering equipment stand ready for connection to production wells. The casings of pre-placed well conductors project vertically from the ground.
Nabors has partially rebuilt its rig 19 for use at Oooguruk — upgrades include a top drive and an AC electrical power system. ASRC Energy Services Rig Supervisor Rod Klebzig is particularly proud of the modern technology, including the power-driven cradle for rapidly transferring drill pipe from the pipe shed to the rig floor.
“It’s all based on efficiency. We’ve got to be efficient. That’s what it’s all about,” Klebzig said.
Oooguruk Project Coordinator Beez Hazen emphasized Pioneer’s emphasis on safety.
“We work safely. … If you don’t have what you need you’re required to stop work and we’ll get what you need,” Hazen said.
And in the event of the need for a rapid emergency evacuation from the island, two vehicles that look like bright red World War I tanks sit ready to trundle down the island jetty into the sea. Called Arktos vehicles and hooked together like the cars of a railroad train, spiked tracks would enable the vehicles to carry a total of more than 90 people to safety over ice or through water, Hall said.
Pipe in a pipe The 12-inch pipeline that will carry oil from the field to onshore facilities runs through an outer 16-inch pipeline that provides secondary containment, were oil to leak from the inner pipe. The pipeline bundle also includes separate lines for water and gas injection, plus a diesel fuel line and an electrical power transmission cable for the island. The bundle is buried beneath the seabed along the 5.7-mile route to shore, from where the lines traverse above ground to facilities at Kuparuk River unit well pad 3H.
At the Kuparuk well pad a separator unit will split gas from the produced liquids for metering purposes. The gas will then be recombined with the liquids before all of the produced fluids flow into a Kuparuk flowline, for processing in Kuparuk field Central Processing Facility 3.
In addition to building the Oooguruk island and production facilities, Pioneer has constructed an onshore camp at Oliktok Point on the east side of Harrison Bay, to act as an equipment staging area and support base for Oooguruk construction and operation. This Oliktok facility includes sleeping quarters and dining facilities for up to 450 people.
Building the staging area camp was like constructing a small village, Ken Sheffield, president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska, told Petroleum News. In such a remote location, it is necessary to provide all facilities including electrical power, adequate supplies of potable water and waste disposal arrangements; the staging area also houses medical clinics that provide a first line of support in the event of illness or injury.
At current activity levels, Pioneer is housing 220 people at Oliktok, with another 165 people housed on the Oooguruk island, Hall said. Once construction is completed those numbers will fall.
“We’ll be drilling for about three years and we’ll have 65 or so people out on the island,” Hall said. “And once drilling is complete we’ll have a staff of about 12 people out there.”
Good fit So, with Oooguruk moving steadily towards production, what is the significance of the new oil field for Pioneer?
Fields such as Oooguruk fit well into the portfolio of an independent oil company such as Pioneer but are too small to interest major oil companies, said Timothy Dove, Pioneer’s president and chief operating officer. Pioneer has currently booked about 900 million barrels of proven oil equivalent reserves, so an additional 70 million barrels will have a good impact, he said.
“For a company like us, it’s right in the sweet spot,” Dove said.
Dove said that Pioneer has really liked operating in Alaska because the state has welcomed independent oil companies and new investment. However, he cautioned against business problems caused by uncertainties in the state’s tax regime — although Pioneer expects to make a good investment return on the $350 million that the company is contributing to the $500 million Oooguruk project, taxation changes would change the economics of the project and could place that return at risk.
“That’s a substantial part of our capital budget for a few years,” Dove said. “That would be a drop in the bucket for a major. But if we have a poor investment outcome on that amount of money … that is a major problem for our company.”
‘Can do’ attitude Pioneer’s lack of bureaucracy coupled with an innovative “can do” attitude, enabled the challenging and complex Oooguruk project to be carried out in just five years, Dove said.
“I think we’ve probably set the land speed record for getting this first project done, but it still takes a lot of time,” Dove said.
Sheffield said that Alaska service companies have proved critically important to project success — those companies have brought essential Alaska expertise that Pioneer needed, he said.
“I can’t say enough about the contribution and cooperation that we’ve had from the Alaska service community,” Sheffield said.
And if Pioneer succeeds at Oooguruk, the way is open for other independents to follow, Dove said.
“Ours is a kind of bell weather project,” he said.
| 