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Alpine “good news story” for Phillips, Meyers tells analysts
By Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Phillips Alaska President Kevin Meyers told analysts Nov. 27 that facilities expansion at Alpine, now under study, could allow production rates at the Alpine facilities to reach 150,000 barrels per day.
The field has been “just a wonderful good news story for us,” Meyers said: The project was sanctioned with expectations of 70,000 bpd and that was revised to 80,000 bpd when an enhanced oil recovery project was included in development plans.
Then, when the second drill site was brought online in mid-November, production of more than 108,000 bpd was achieved.
“So the reservoir is performing beyond our expectations,” he said.
Operators have been working to de-bottleneck the facilities. “We managed to get these name-plate facilities up from 80,000 barrels a day up to 100,000 barrels a day with de-bottlenecking and just good operations there,” Meyers said.
When the second drill site, CD2, came on line, he said, “it freed up some hydraulics from the first drill site and we’re able to push a few extra thousand barrels a day through the facilities.”
Alpine has boosted Phillips’ Alaska production 8 percent this year — an expected 392,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Meyers said.
Looking for economic acceleration The challenge at Alpine is facility expansion, he said.
“Clearly we have the reservoir deliverability to put more oil out of that field.”
From Alpine alone, he said, production could easily reach 120,000 bpd.
“You ladle on the satellites that we currently know and other possible opportunities with additional drill sites potentially at Alpine and … you’re knocking on the door of 150,000 barrel a day of deliverability.”
And that is, Meyers said, “from what we know.” It doesn’t include “any new opportunities or new discoveries we might have out there.”
Engineering is under way for a facility expansion project in the $100 million range for Alpine which would delivery 120,000 to 150,000 bpd, Meyers said. A decision on that expansion will be made next year.
The company has announced discoveries in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and Meyers said “there may be some synergies from that as well in terms of this facility expansion.”
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