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Camp, rig move to Pikka unit for June spud of 1st well at ND-B pad
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The rig camp is moving to drill site ND-B at the Pikka unit this weekend, Oil Search (Alaska) told the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission April 18, to be followed by Parker’s rig 272 the following weekend, with spud of the company’s first well in June.
Oil Search, a subsidiary of Santos Ltd., said in November that it was excavating well cellars at its ND-B drill site and had just mobilized its first camp, a 185-bed camp, at Pikka.
(See map in the online issue PDF)
Oil Search is operator and 51% working interest owner at Pikka; Repsol E&P USA owns the other 49% WIO.
At the April 18 pool rules hearing Oil Search reviewed geological data for Pikka and noted exploration and appraisal data for the unit and adjacent area including more than 20 well penetrations, 11 wells with rock samples and more than five wells with successful flow test data.
Development plan Oil Search said its initial target at Pikka is the Nanushuk 3 reservoir, with 43 development wells planned at the ND-B pad, 41 into the Nanushuk oil pool and two into Alpine C. The company said the Alpine C wells were planned for later, and that they would apply then for pool rules for Alpine C.
Oil Search said the drilling order of the wells in the first year would be optimized based on factors including gathering early data to determine reservoir quality and validate the development plan; do extra logging while drilling, LWD, and open hole logging; frac micro-seismic testing; and interwell pulse testing over single and double well spacing distances. Also, although all Pikka wells will be extended reach drilling, ERD, or ultra-ERD, earlier wells would be the shorter ones, which are less challenging to drill.
Initial wells drilled will be suspended as Pikka production facilities are projected to come online later with first oil production projected in May of 2026.
Phase 1 Phase 1 of Pikka, with the 41 Nanushuk wells, will have waterflood with water initially from the seawater treatment plant Oil Search is building, and later using produced water when the rate is high enough to avoid freezing issues in the line between the Nanushuk Processing Facility, NPF, and ND-B.
The company plans reservoir gas injection for the miscible water alternating gas, WAG, enhanced oil recovery project.
Official reserves for phase 1 are booked at 397 million barrels, including the two Alpine C wells, with an expected recovery factor, combined waterflood and WAG EOR, at about 37% and expected peak annual rate of 80,000 barrels of oil per day.
Oil Search said it is progressing two additional drill sites to develop remaining resources in the unit.
Development Planned development with modular facilities will reduce initial capital requirements, the company said, with phase 1 development including building out the initial processing facility, drill site, seawater treatment plant and operations pad.
The Nanushuk Processing Facility is a modular design with two 40,000 barrel per day processing trains and is expandable in 40,000 bpd increments.
Modules are being built in Canada, Oil Search said, are truckable and could also come by river from Canada and then across the Beaufort Sea.
The seawater treatment plant has a 100,000 bpd capacity and is expandable up to 165,000 to 200,000 bpd.
There will be grind and inject, G&I, and produced water disposal at the NPF, an operations pad, the ND-B drill site and a tie-in pad and pipelines.
Commission concerns Commissioners Jessie Chmielowski and Greg Wilson had some questions about the company’s plans.
Oil must be metered before it leaves the unit, and Chmielowski noted that the NPF, where the LACT meter would be located, is outside the unit boundary - it lies to the east of the current unit boundary. Wilson asked about another location for the NPF. Oil Search said there were constraints on where the facility could be located and said an application to expand the unit would include the pad location.
Chmielowski asked about cementing wells through the Tuluvak sand, citing a blowout Repsol had drilling through the Tuluvak as well as the recent gas release from a shallow sand at ConocoPhillips’ Alpine pad.
The company said that after discussions with commission staff it had determined it needed to cement through the Tuluvak for all wells.
Wilson asked about the pool definition for the Nanushuk, noting that ConocoPhillips also produces from the Nanushuk.
Oil Search said ConocoPhillips produces from the Nanushuk 2 reservoir, while Oil Search produces from the Nanushuk 3. Chmielowski said the commission would have a concern about whether resources would be stranded. Wells cannot reach closer than 500 feet to a boundary where ownership changes, as it does on the western border with the Colville River unit, and the reservoir might extend beyond the Pikka unit boundary.
Oil Search said they have had discussions with the adjacent operator but said typically ConocoPhillips is developing the Nanushuk 2 reservoir while Oil Search is developing the Nanushuk 3.
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