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Two year program per Lagniappe operations plan for E. North Slope
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas received a Lease Plan of Operations from Lagniappe Alaska LLC on Oct. 6 to drill up to six exploration wells in the next two winters on its eastern North Slope acreage, which is south of Badami and east of Prudhoe Bay.
(See map and well chart in the online issue PDF)
This winters mobilization will transport and deliver the Doyon 141 drilling rig to the King Street-1 well location, the Nabors 105 drilling rig to the Voodoo-1 and the Doyon Arctic Fox drilling rig to the Sockeye-1. The three wells will be drilled simultaneously.
Lagniappe said if the two-year exploration program is deemed successful, the "decision will be made whether to pursue development options."
Summer studies Lagniappe has completed archaeological and lake studies to support upcoming winter activities. Field work was completed in the summers of 2022 and 2023.
The work included aerial and pedestrian archeological surveys to support winter ice road routing and ice pad locations, and lake bathymetry and fish sampling to back up water withdrawal applications.
The fieldwork was done by ASRC Consulting & Environmental Services. Aerial and pedestrian surveys were also conducted by Lagniappes ice road manager for route alignment and well staking.
Thermistor Installation Lagniappe installed thermistors in the summer of 2022 along the proposed access corridor centerline to obtain ground temperature readings to support early tundra access for ice road construction.
A total of nine thermistor installations were placed along the 40-mile route originating from Endicott Road.
Each thermistor site consists of a road cable, a control cable and a data logger. The thermistor string (or digital temperature cable) was installed in a - -inch diameter hole drilled to a depth of 12 inches in the road centerline. The road cable extends 15 feet perpendicular to the centerline to the data logger, which was mounted on a post.
The road cable was armored to prevent damage from animals or equipment. The system allows for real-time data transmission via satellite allowing operators to know site conditions and maximize the duration of their season.
In summer 2023, a site visit was completed to perform maintenance on thermistors that may have sustained damage over the previous winter season. Some of the thermistors were also relocated due to alterations to the finalized route location.
Project mobilization The winter 2023-24 mobilization will be conducted via an overland ice road route originating off the all-season, gravel Endicott Road. The route will continue east before terminating at the Sockeye-1 well site.
The winter 2024-25 mobilization will follow a similar route ending at the three remaining well locations. Rig transport and delivery will depend on availability but will follow a similar schedule.
Lagniappes exploratory operations will begin as soon as favorable winter weather conditions permit ice construction and mobilization.
Per Lagniappes exploration plan, operations will be conducted on temporary ice pads, up to approximately 600 feet by 600 feet, constructed at the selected drill sites. Support camps will be established at each drill site and will house personnel supporting the drilling operations.
Access to the project area will be via ice roads connecting the drill sites to the gravel Endicott Road.
Drilling & demobilization Drilling operations at each location will begin when the well pad has been built.
Each well is planned as a single vertical hole drilled into potential liquid hydrocarbon zones. These will be largely stratigraphic wells that will include the collection of cores and a single vertical seismic profile, or VSP.
Drilling into new hydrocarbon- bearing zones will not occur after April 24.
Well formation evaluations via open and cased hole logs will be performed during the drilling at all wells. In addition, a well testing plan for each well has been developed to quantify reservoir inflow performance characteristics should hydrocarbons be encountered in sufficient quantities.
At the conclusion of all formation evaluation and well testing work scopes, the wells will be plugged and abandoned in compliance with Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulations, Lagniappe said.
At the end of each drilling season, all equipment associated with the project will be demobilized to Deadhorse over the ice road. Locations with temporary infrastructure constructed of snow and ice will be cleaned of all debris and potential contamination and allowed to naturally degrade (thaw) in the spring to their original state.
Access to project Ice roads will be used to deliver the drill rigs, and transport supplies and equipment from Prudhoe Bay to the project area. Existing permanent gravel roads will be used to the maximum extent possible.
A 500 foot by 785 foot temporary staging and offload pad, constructed of ice, will be built near the origin of the project ice road to support mobilization efforts.
A semi-circular ice road turnout, approximately 200 feet long by 20 feet wide, will be built on the north side of Endicott Road (at the Lagniappe ice road origin) to allow wide vehicle turn access.
The existing permanent single-lane bridge on the west fork of the Sagavanirktok River near Deadhorse is not adequate to support Lagniappes rig move; therefore, the company proposes to build a bypass ice bridge between the ramp to the CH2MHill yard and the ramp to Drillsite 17.
The bridge will be approximately 1.4 miles long, 200 feet wide, and 7-8 feet deep.
The ice roads will be maintained using generally accepted practices for the North Slope, subject to DNR tundra opening criteria.
Pre-packing of ice roads will be requested prior to the official tundra opening to preserve early snow.
Overland travel to the drill sites will be via approved low-pressure all-terrain vehicles from staging areas.
No airstrips will be built within the project area and no fixed wing or rotary aircraft operations are anticipated during drilling.
Project components, crew and fuel will be transported via gravel and ice roads from Deadhorse.
Summer inspections and clean-up between June 15 and July 15 will require rotary aircraft to access the project areas.
Contractors and equipment Lagniappe will utilize various contractors for drilling operations and support facilities. The contractors used are experienced and familiar with North Slope operations.
Alaska Clean Seas, or ACS, will be used as the primary response contractor. ACS will place a connex of typical response equipment on each drill site pad.
Response equipment will include enough supplies to contain minor and intermediate spills. Larger spills would require all of ACS resources as well as resources from other support contractors.
Lagniappe will use Cruz Construction and Northern Energy Services as support contractors. Both contractors have extensive knowledge of North Slope operations and maintenance and will provide multiple services and equipment for the Lagniappe drilling program.
The proposed well locations are on state of Alaska land.
Ancillary facilities Up to three camp facilities at each drilling location are planned for use during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 drilling seasons. Camps will be removed during demobilization between each drilling season.
Camp facilities within the project area will house approximately 100 people at any given time.
A dish antenna will be used to support communications of phone and internet.
The filing of the Oct. 6 Lease plan of Operations was preceded by an Oct. 4 land use permit application for the same exploration program. Both were signed by Nate Lowe, VP of land and business development for Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc. and manager of Lagniappe Alaska.
On March 30 after Lagniappe, which is an Armstrong Oil & Gas company, had begun permitting for the eastern North Slope exploration program, Bill Armstrong told Petroleum News in a text that the exploration wells will target Brookian objectives -- "Pikka look-a-likes that are defined off of high effort, reprocessed modern 3D. Really exciting stuff. Big targets."
There has been "virtually no prior drilling in the area. The wells that have been drilled have great shows and some have bypassed pay on old logs," Armstrong added.
--KAY CASHMAN
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