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GMT-1 remains on schedule with gravel, bridge work this winter
Despite delays in some North Slope field projects ConocoPhillips says construction is on schedule for its company’s GMT-1, or Greater Moose’s Tooth, project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska beginning this winter.
“Engineering for GMT1 is still in progress and procurement is a focus for purchasing construction materials. Some fabrication is underway and or in the bidding stage,” ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said.
“More intensive construction planning will begin in late summer and fall. Winter 2017 construction activity will include gravel placement, bridge construction and some pipeline work,” she said.
It is scheduled to begin production in 2018 with peak output at 18,000 barrels per day. Capital costs are estimated at about $900 million.
GMT-1 is about nine miles west of the new CD-5 project that is now producing near the eastern boundary of the NPR-A with state lands. The Alpine field is a few miles east of CD-5, in the Colville River delta.
Lowman said ConocoPhillips also continues work on a second NPR-A development, GMT-2. The company is pursuing a strategy of developing the two small discoveries and continues to explore in the area, which is in the northeast part of the 23-million-acre national petroleum reserve.
Fluids produced in GMT-1 are shipped to processing facilities in the Alpine field.
West Sak expansion on hold In other developments, however, ConocoPhillips has put expansion its West Sak viscous oil project on hold because of low oil prices.
ConocoPhillips had expected have the $450 million I-H NEWS expansion of West Sak completed and in production by early 2017, but the work has now been delayed. I-H NEWS was estimated to add 8,000 bpd of new production at peak. Existing West Sak wells were producing about 15,000 barrels per day last year.
“We have placed our plans to develop 1H NEWS (North East West Sak) on hold,” Lowman said in an email.
“Budgets have not been set for the coming year and I can't speculate on when oil prices will recover enough for us to restart work,” she said.
West Sak is a large accumulation of viscous oil, sometimes referred to as heavy oil, that extends at shallow depths across several conventional producing fields on the North Slope, mainly the Kuparuk River, Milne Point fields and the western part of Prudhoe Bay.
Viscous oil is approximately 18 to 19 degrees API and is thicker than conventional crude and also colder because of its shallow depth and proximity to permafrost that underlies the North Slope. The combination of those makes the oil flow more slowly than conventional oil, which means rates of daily production are lower.
Although the resource is technically challenged the estimates of oil-in-place are very large, totaling several billion barrels.
Field operators have been working for years to produce the crude with limited success. ConocoPhillips has developed several new West Sak production techniques that it intends to apply at the expansion project.
- TIM BRADNER
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