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26,624 acres dropped from Colville unit expansion area
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
The Colville River unit is 26,624 acres smaller following a decision by unit operator ConocoPhillips Alaska and partner Anadarko Petroleum not to drill a second Oberon test well on expansion acreage at the southeastern edge of the unit.
A November 2002 decision by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources on the second expansion application for the unit required two test wells on the Oberon expansion acreage, the first by June 1, 2003 and the second by June 1, 2004. The state also required that the Oberon expansion area lands be included in a participating area — acreage from which oil and gas is produced — within five years.
ConocoPhillips drilled the Oberon No. 1 well this winter, completing it at a measured depth of 7,580 feet and a true vertical depth of 7,491 feet. The well was plugged and abandoned in February in section 9, township 10 north, range 6 east, Umiat Meridian.
Alaska Division of Oil and Gas Director Mark Myers told Petroleum News in mid-August that poor results from the first Oberon test well led to canceling plans for a second well.
ConocoPhillips notified the state in late May that it would not drill a second Oberon well, which meant the Oberon expansion acreage would contract out of the unit effective June 1. June 1 was the deadline for notification to the state that the second Oberon well would not be drilled. If notification had not been made by June 1, and the second well had not been drilled, there would have been a penalty due of $340,000. Titania will be drilled Titania is the Colville River unit expansion area immediately west of Oberon and terms of the unit expansion approval required ConocoPhillips to commit to a Titania test well by June 1, 2003. ConocoPhillips told the state in late May that it would drill that well, which must be drilled by June 1, 2004. A second well is required by June 1, 2005, and the Titania expansion area must be in an approved participating area within five years.
No additional drilling was required at Nanuq and Fiord, where a number of wells have already been drilled. The requirement for those expansion areas is inclusion in participating areas. Fiord and Nanuq development is under study as part of the environmental impact statement to develop Colville River unit satellites both on state and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. lands, and in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to the west.
Oberon was the largest of four Colville River unit expansion areas approved in November. The bulk of the acreage is south and southwest of the unit: Oberon (26,624 acres on the southeast corner), Titania (16,259 acres west of Titania), Nanuq (10,210 acres south of the existing unit) and Fiord (6,722 acres at the northwest corner).
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