Oil Patch Insider

Wadeen Hepworth

Petro-Canada to shoot Foothills’ seismic; Evergreen on Fortune list

Oil Patch Insider is written by Petroleum News • Alaska columnist Wadeen Hepworth. The Insider appears three times per month. Individuals providing news or tips to Wadeen do not have to be identified in the column. She can be reached at (907) 770-3506 or via email at [email protected].

VISITORS FROM CANADA…. Petro-Canada had people in Anchorage a few days ago who met with state officials about the company’s plans to shoot seismic in the Foothills this winter.

PERMITTING THREE OR FOUR HOT ICE PROSPECTS…. As you know from reading the July 14 and this week’s edition of Petroleum News Alaska, Anadarko Petroleum is planning to drill two gas hydrate wells on 100 percent Anadarko-owned North Slope leases this winter. The company actually plans to permit three or four hot ice prospects and will likely drill two of those on the north side of Whiskey Gulch where Anadarko already has permits from last year to drill two conventional wells. Those wells were permitted as back-up wells for the company’s Altamura prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. It doesn’t look promising for an NPR-A well this winter from Anadarko. At least for now, the company does not expect to drill in the NPR-A this winter. Anadarko sources say the mineral coring rig for the two gas hydrate wells will likely come from Dynatec in Salt Lake City.

IN CASE YOU HADN’T HEARD…. Congressman Don Young made some changes in his Washington, D.C., and Juneau offices. Ann Gibson was promoted to legislative director and Charles Cogar is the new legislative assistant in the hottest, muggiest city on the East Coast.

Connie McKenzie is the new staff assistant in the rainy city by the sea.

THEY’VE MOVED…. The Alaska Division of Governmental Coordination’s office, in Juneau, to 302 Gold Street. The mailing address will remain the same.

EVERGREEN RESOURCES NAMED TO SMALL BUSINESS 100…. Evergreen Resources is No. 9 on Fortune’s Small Business 100, a list of the fastest growing companies. The magazine says ranking is based on stock performance and earnings and revenue growth for the past three years. Evergreen subsidiary Evergreen Resources Alaska is working on coalbed methane projects in the Mat-Su and near Delta Junction. Fortune says the Denver-based company is one of the leading producers of coalbed methane in the United States. “A new joint project with a U.K. energy concern should boost its revenue,” Fortune said.

F.Y.I. OIL IS OLD NEWS…. The June 24 issue of Time Magazine carried a full page BP advertisement that said, “Oil is old news. It’s time for a new era. It’s time for new technologies.”

A statement by BP in the lower right corner said, “We’re committed to solar. In the last six years we’ve invested over $200 million in solar power, and are now one of the largest producers in the world, bringing this renewable energy to over 160 countries. Our goal: to make solar a $1 billion business by 2007.

“It’s a start.”

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMS TO BE OFFERED…. The board of regents at the University of Alaska approved six new programs, one of which may be of interest to our readers. UAF will offer a new Master of Software Engineering program. For more information call (907) 474-721.

PHILLIPS NEW TANKER TAKES FIRST LIFTING…. The Polar Resolution, the second of the new Phillip’s Endeavour class tankers, will take its first lifting of Alaska crude on Thursday, July 18 in Valdez. The tanker is operated by Polar Tankers of Long Beach, Calif., a subsidiary of Phillips Petroleum Co.

The Polar Resolution is one of five Endeavour-class crude tankers being built to operate under the U.S. flag. They combine double hulls, independent engine rooms redundant propulsion and twin-steering systems, a separate bow thruster and state of the art navigation systems.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the ARCO Juneau took the very first Alaska crude from the trans-Alaska pipeline on Aug. 1, 1977.

Phillips Alaska has been in the process of converting to a computer program called SAP that stands for “Systems, Applications and Products” in data processing.

Dawn Patience, director of communications for Phillips Alaska, said that SAP was already used in Phillips Petroleum operations around the world and is being implemented at Phillips Alaska. SAP will replace multiple systems within the company.

Dawn said SAP is the number one integrated business management software solution used worldwide among all types of companies. It has a complete group of integrated applications, including financial, materials management, maintenance and timesheet programs. SAP started operating on July 1 and was a success. Employees are still training on the system.

Were those moans we heard coming through the doors as we drove past Phillips?

DOWN IN KENAIVILLE…. The Kenai Peninsula Clarion asked their readers “If you had to vote today which Republican candidate for lieutenant governor would you vote for?”

The e-mail total on July 17 showed 39 percent for Sarah Palin, 26 percent for Loren Leman, 25 percent for Robin Taylor and 19 percent for Gail Phillips. Apparently the system is set to ensure no one could vote more than once. The folks at the Clarion expect to end the voting by July 19.

ALASKA MINERS MAY BE INTERESTED…. Interior Appropriations reported that, “The Committee finds that the Park Service in Alaska is failing to follow the Administrative Procedures Act. Therefore no funds in this Act may be used to prepare or reinforce Compendia including any rule, regulation, policy, or management tool that is not promulgated pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act.”

The Committee was advised that the Superintendent in Katmai was enforcing rules and imposing fines that the public had no knowledge of. Promulgated is such a classy sounding word that I’m heading to the dictionary as soon as I push the enter key.

QUIT COMPLAINING…. about the heat. The temps hit 70 degrees in Barrow this week.

A PIONEER OF COLD REGIONS GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING…. Thomas G. Krzewinski, a pioneer of cold regions geotechnical engineering, has joined Golder as a senior geotechnical engineering consultant. Tom is one of the pioneers of cold regions geotechnical engineering in Alaska.

He was a full-time consultant to the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. owners and was instrumental in the early design and layout of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Tom was responsible for the slope stability and liquefaction analyses for the entire 800-mile alignment. He continued as a full-time consultant through the construction of the line and set up many of the long-term monitoring systems that are currently in use for performance monitoring of the pipeline system.

Did he retire after that? Heck no, he went on to work on the Red Dog Mine development and was responsible for geotechnical engineering efforts at the mine facility, the port dock, the 90 mile road to the mine, the ore processing facility, etc.

If he has a wife she must be a gem as he worked on projects all over Alaska including the Portage Glacier Visitors Center before moving to the Midwest.

It is fun to read of his projects as principal geotechnical engineer and manager of regional project development (how would you like to write that title on forms?) for American Engineering Testing in Duluth. The jobs are too numerous to mention but one was the Great Lakes Aquarium.

In 1998 Tom was awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Harold R. Peyton Award for significant contributions to cold region geotechnical engineering. He is also the author of several books.

Golder Associates, an international consulting firm providing geotechnical engineering and environmental services, asks that you join them in welcoming Tom back to Alaska.

According to Dave Westgard, Baker Oil Tools, in an article prepared for the World Oil magazine, the North Slope has more than 15 billion barrels of viscous original oil in place. The cost of getting that oil has been prohibitive.

Dave said that in 1996 BP devised a large scale Schrader Bluff development plan based on frac-for-sand (FSC) control techniques that it believed would enable wells to produce up to 600 barrels per day. The plan called for five new gravel pads, 10 miles of new roads and 75 miles of new pipelines. Dave wrote that a majority of the 1996 FSC wells experienced multiple ESP failures as a result of production of both proppant and formation sand.

The large-scale field development was stopped and re-evaluated based on using long horizontal, multilateral wells. With horizontal well profiles enabling step-outs of more than 10,000 feet from gravel pads, the new development concept showed that only one gravel pad would be required with one mile of new road and 7.5 miles of new pipeline. This represented a significant decrease in costs. A new technical strategy based on this concept focused on tripling well rates with dual lateral sand wells, cutting operating costs in half by using jet pumps and long-life completions, reducing drilling costs by 30 percent using multilaterals and coiled tubing drilling.

Dave said the first multilateral wells in Milne Point were drilled in November 2000 using Baker Oil Tools Level 2 systems. A failure in one well triggered a decision to modify the design and in 2001 the world’s first 4 1/2 x 7 inch Baker Hook Hanger Level 3 system was installed. (see pictures this page)

The Hook Hanger system provides mechanical support for junctions that join cased and cemented main bores with screened, open-hole laterals in wells with commingled production. In Milne Point, it allows the junction and the slotted liner to be set together in one run. (see Installation Sequence this page)

The Schrader Bluff formation, part of the Milne Pont unit, is the shallowest and consists of three main sands — N, OA and OB — separated by shale. The well recently drilled by BP was drilled in the Schrader Bluff Obd, Obc and Oba sands using the Baker TAML 3 hook hanger junctions. This well was the first TAML 3 Trilateral drilled in Alaska and set well records with a total footage of 19,515 feet, the first horizontal well drilled with 10,000 feet of net pay (10,255), a 94 percent geo-steering efficiency in 10-foot thick sands, the most horizontal footage drilled and lined on one well in Alaska (11,274 feet) and the most 6 1/8 inch horizontal footage drilled in a 24 hour period in Alaska (3,482 feet).

Mik Triolo, BP Exploration (Alaska) operations drilling engineer for Greater Prudhoe Bay, said the records were set because of excellent teamwork by rig-site personnel.