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Eni picking up pace Nikaitchuq facilities work, drilling increases in 14th plan of development Kay Cashman Petroleum News
In its 14th plan of development for the North Slope Nikaitchuq unit, operator and 100% working interest owner Eni told Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas that facility upgrades will be completed to support the planned Nikaitchuq North exploration well (NN-02), the two remaining Spy Island Drillsite injection wells and the “potential” of six new wells discovered from the SP03-NE2 pilot-hole analysis from the 12th POD. (The work will include completing internal piping and electrical tie-ins for the new six-slot well containment shelter installed during that time.)
The 14th POD will run from Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022.
The Nikaitchuq unit consists of 11 state leases, some 21,200 acres north of the Kuparuk unit. It produces from the Schrader Bluff formation with drilling from two locations - the Oliktok Point Pad, or OPP, and the Spy Island Drillsite, or SID, which is a man-made gravel island in shallow state waters off Oliktok Point where Nikaitchuq’s onshore production and processing facilities are located.
Nordic Calista Rig No. 4 is currently cold stacked at OPP. Eni plans to warm the rig up at the end of Q3 2021 and conduct workover activities on OPP in Q4 of this year and Q1 2022, as needed. Currently workovers are planned on OI15-S4, OI13-03, OP16-03, OI20-07, OI06-05, OP09-S1.
Eni currently has plans to drill five wells (four grassroots and one sidetrack) during the 14th POD. The injector SI02-SE6 of the original development plan is scheduled to be drilled Q4 2021 and will help support the SP01-SE7 and SP04-SE5 producers, Eni said in its proposed 14th POD.
Two new production wells and an injection well are also planned to be completed as part of the northeast extension during the 14th POD period. A second lateral is tentatively planned to be added to SP05-FN7.
Currently, Doyon 15 Rig is completing a series of workovers at SID as part of the 13th POD.
Plant maintenance shutdown Well operations are planned to continue until July 2021 when all rig operations will be suspended in preparation for the production plant’s scheduled 10-year maintenance shutdown and the arrival of materials to continue workover and drilling operations.
For the 14th POD period from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2022, well operations will include the following (see Table 3 in pdf and print versions of this story):
* Doyon 15 workovers in SID.
* Nordic Calista 4 workover activities in OPP.
* Drilling activities currently approved from SID.
• No new drilling activities are currently approved from OPP.
Reservoir management plans Eni said that reservoir management activities will continue in the Schrader Bluff participating area, or SBPA, with the following objectives:
* Maximize daily volumes and value by optimizing hydrocarbon production.
* Minimize risk exposure to key producing wells and maintain well integrity.
* Continue the polymer injection test at OPP through Q1 2022.
* Tracer sampling and interpretation in the OP-I2 polymer pilot area.
* Proactively define and develop mitigation plans related to water production.
* Proactively acquire reservoir performance data critical to reservoir management and overall recoverable volumes determination.
* Ensure timely execution of reservoir surveillance plans, workovers, re-completions, and infill drilling.
* Update current reservoir simulations and studies to reproduce the field behavior.
* Find cost-effective solutions to optimize production.
Eni also said that a simulation model will continue to be maintained and updated to support the ongoing operations and future development of the Schrader Bluff OA reservoir. (The company has said the top of the Schrader Bluff pool is the Cretaceous shale below the Ugnu formation and the bottom of the pool is some 45 feet below the base of the Schrader Bluff OA sand.)
Other facilities work In addition to the facilities upgrades previously mentioned, during the 14th POD period, Eni said it will perform routine maintenance and mechanical integrity inspection of piping, equipment, vessels, tanks and other safety systems. The company has several planned minor facility upgrades at OPP and SID.
For example, process hazard analysis revalidation action items from the 11th POD will continue to be addressed and mitigated and efforts cleaning and replace inlet heat exchanger bundles will continue to add more heat to the processing system. Actions will be based on the heat exchanger analysis performed in the 12th POD.
An alarm management and rationalization study will be performed to reduce nuisance alarms in the OPP control room.
Financial approval is expected on the electrical power sharing, or EPS, project to interconnect the Nikaitchuq power infrastructure with the Oooguruk power infrastructure. Eni said it will allow more robust and efficient power system sharing between the two development projects.
Detailed design and fabrication will also occur during the 14th POD. Once approved. EPS startup is scheduled for 2023.
Exploration outside PA Eni drilled the Nikaitchuq North extended reach exploration well, NN-01 outside the Nikaitchuq unit’s participating area from SID into the Harrison Bay Block 6423 federal unit north of the Nikaitchuq state unit boundary.
The NN-01 well was first spud at SID on Dec. 25, 2017, but drilling did not get underway until February 2018 because of what Eni said were “unforeseen impacts to the drilling schedule.”
The well was drilled to a measured depth of 30,010 feet and suspended in August 2018, but not fully logged as it was short of its target which seismic showed to be at approximately 34,150 feet. NN-01 drilling was done with Doyon Rig 15, which had been specially modified for the well.
Drilling operations resumed in mid-January 2019, but due to the “drilling complications” at NN-01 that had plagued it from the start, Eni said it suspended the well in April of that year.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Eni’s NN-02 well would be “targeting the same seismic anomaly” as the first well.
Like the first ultra-extended reach well, NN-02 will be an S-shape wellbore into the target reservoir.
Eni had planned to drill NN-02 in Q2 2020 during the winter drilling season and complete it in Q3 2020. However; the company’s working interest partner elected to go non-consent (not participate) in the drilling of NN-02, resulting in Eni temporarily postponing its drilling plans.
Eni applied for and received from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, a suspension of operations for an additional 2-year period, or until April 2022, to drill NN-02.
One of the reasons Eni gave for stepping out north of the Nikaitchuq unit to test the Nikaitchuq North prospect was it wanted new oil to take advantage of significant spare capacity in the standalone Nikaitchuq unit production facility, which can currently handle 40,000 barrels per day and can easily be expanded to 50,000 bpd, according to Eni.
May production from Nikaitchuq averaged 17,250 bpd.
Unit contraction delayed Low oil prices, reduced oil demand and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Eni to request a delay in unit contraction on state leases for the Nikaitchuq unit.
The Division of Oil and Gas approved the Nikaitchuq deferral on Feb. 17.
Unit contraction reduces a unit to acreage within participating areas, the areas from which production is occurring.
In granting the deferral, Division Director Tom Stokes said Eni provided “evidence that the Schrader Bluff reservoir extends outside the current participating area and has described long-term plans to drill wells in this area.”
If the wells are drilled, and prove productive, that area would likely be included in the existing Schrader Bluff PA, he said.
Without a contraction delay, Eni might have lost the right to drill there, and if the Nikaitchuq unit was contracted, Stokes said, “the resources outside the unit are unlikely large enough to justify development by another lessee who might acquire the area in a future lease sale.”
The area would also likely require “duplicative facilities to develop.”
If the area was contracted from the Nikaitchuq unit, Stokes said, “then the relatively small resource size and difficult development options could prevent development and thus strand state resources.”
Contraction of the Nikaitchuq unit was deferred through Sept. 30, 2022, which coincides with the expiration of the unit’s next plan of development.
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