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Conoco applies for expansion at Kuparuk
Small addition, 640 acres, would be to area covered by Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules for the Kuparuk oil pool Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
ConocoPhillips Alaska has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for a small expansion to the area covered by the commission’s rules for the Kuparuk River oil pool.
The expansion request is for section 22 in township 13 north, range 3 east, Umiat Meridian, an area which is within the Kuparuk River unit and is already covered by the commission’s area injection order for Kuparuk.
ConocoPhillips is the Kuparuk operator.
A section is an area of one square mile area containing 640 acres; Division of Oil and Gas records indicate the Kuparuk River unit includes more than 270,000 acres.
ConocoPhillips said the proposed addition to the pool rules area is northwest of existing Kuparuk River unit drill site 3M and “is in pressure communication with the main Kuparuk River Field.”
The company said no rule changes are proposed.
“Approval of the application would permit these operations to continue to be conducted within the existing Kuparuk River Field and Participating Area,” the company said.
Issue identified in 2018 ConocoPhillips said AOGCC staff advised the company in May 2018 that an application for permit to drill northern laterals from the 3M-23 well, on section 27-T13N-R8E, crossed into the northern area of 22-T13N-R8E, the southeast quarter of which was outside the Kuparuk River oil pool. At that time it was also discovered that an adjacent well, 3M-27, permitted in 1995, was outside the pool rules area. That well, 3M-27, has been on production since that time, ConocoPhillips said.
The company noted that in 2017, permits were approved to redrill the existing 3M-27 development well as 3M-27A, with additional laterals also approved and four laterals drilled outside the existing pool rule area in 22-T13N-R8E.
When the company applied for a spacing exception waiver for 3M-23, it said a remedial action would be to apply to expand the affected area of the Kuparuk River oil pool to include section 22-T13N-R3E.
ConocoPhillips said its current application was an effort to fulfill that remedial action.
The commission has tentatively scheduled a hearing on the application for May 12 with written comments due May 10 but said if there is no timely request for a hearing it may consider issuance of an order without a hearing.
The commission said that because of COVID-19 related social distancing, if a request for hearing is filed and social distancing requirements are still in effect, it will make a determination on whether to schedule a hearing electronically or postpone the hearing until after social distancing requirements are eased.
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