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Hilcorp files with DEC for jack-up use
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska has applied to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for supplemental development drilling at its Tyonek Platform in northern Cook Inlet using the Spartan 151 mobile offshore drilling unit or a similar MODU.
DEC said in a notice of review for an Alaskan Pollutant Discharge Elimination preliminary draft individual permit that the company is applying for oil and gas drilling activity related wastewater discharges at the Tyonek Platform from drilling intended to increase gas production at the facility.
On May 20 the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas approved Hilcorp’s 2021 plan of development for the North Cook Inlet unit, which produces from the Tyonek platform. In the 2021 period, the division said, the company plans to complete sidetracks of up to three shut-in wells, in addition to recompleting wells, doing well clean outs and adding perforations.
Longer-term sidetrack drilling is also planned beyond the 2021 POD period, the division said.
The 2021 POD covers July 1 of this year through June 30, 2022.
In its POD the company told the division four sidetrack prospects were identified in a field study at the unit but said some of those prospects probably won’t be drilled in the 2021 POD period.
Hilcorp told the division it “plans further review of gas potential in the Beluga and Sterling accessible via RWO or sidetracks of existing wells,” with as many as three sidetracks targeting the Beluga and Sterling proposed for the 2021 POD period.
Spartan or other MODU DEC said that while the permit has been developed based on characterizations of wastewater from the Spartan 151 jack-up, it would allow discharges from an alternative MODU “so long as the discharge characteristics would not represent a material and substantial alteration or addition to the permitted discharges that would require different permit conditions.”
Discharges in the permit include graywater, blowout preventer fluid, noncontact cooling water, uncontaminated ballast water and excess cement slurry.
DEC said the project involves moving the Spartan 151 jack-up to the site and cantilevering it over the existing Tyonek production platform.
Because the Spartan 151 will be physically located over the platform, DEC said associated discharges are considered to be from the platform and applicable to the existing authorization.
There are four necessary discharges not currently authorized - blowout preventer fluid, noncontact cooling water, uncontaminated ballast water and excess cement slurry - and because graywater from the Spartan 151 will be from a separate treatment unit, a graywater discharge permit is also required.
The project is expected to be completed during the 2021 drilling season, DEC said.
North Cook Inlet is one of the larger gas fields in the Cook Inlet basin, producing an average 13,933 thousand cubic feet per day, 6.3% of inlet natural gas production in April, the most recent month for which production data is available from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The field was discovered by Pan American in 1962 and developed by Phillips later in the 1960s to provide natural gas for the liquefied natural gas plant Phillips and Marathon built at Nikiski.
Phillips merged with Conoco in 2001 and ConocoPhillips sold the North Cook Inlet unit to Hilcorp Alaska in 2016.
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