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Conoco wants Alpine, Fiord pools combined
As it prepares for extended reach drilling at CRU’s Fiord West, ConocoPhillips requests pool rule, injection changes from AOGCC Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
ConocoPhillips Alaska is preparing to begin extended reach drilling at the Colville River unit to develop Fiord West and has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for changes in the pool rules and the area injection orders for the CRU Alpine and Fiord oil pools.
In a notice of the change request the commission said ConocoPhillips wants to expand the area of the Alpine Oil pool to include acreage within the CRU but not currently within the AOP and expand the vertical limits of the AOP. The changes, the commission said, would have the effect of incorporating the Fiord Oil pool into the AOP.
In a cover letter accompanying the application the company said the amendments it is proposing would expand the AOP for future Fiord West development from the Colville Delta 2 drill site, “accommodate continued western and southern development” from the CD5 drill site and “update and standardize pool rules for the deep CRU intervals to enable efficient operation and development under a single set of rules for these similar, related, and interconnected intervals,” effectively incorporating the FOP into the AOP, and terminating separate pool rules and area injection rules for the FOP.
Reservoirs ConocoPhillips said in its application that the current AOP includes the Alpine and Nanuq Kuparuk reservoirs and the current FOP includes the Fiord Nechelik, Fiord Kuparuk and eastern Fiord West Kuparuk reservoirs.
“This application will enable the AOGCC to establish rules that will allow economic development of the resources, promote greater ultimate recovery, prevent waste, and improve operational efficiency within the AOP,” the company said.
The vertical limits of the proposed expanded AOP correlate to the interval between 6,920 feet and 7,559 feet measured depth in the Alpine No. 3 well.
“Three reservoirs are present within the proposed pool: the Jurassic reservoirs commonly known as the Nechelik and Alpine sandstones within the Kingak Formation, and sands within the Lower Cretaceous Kuparuk River Formation (Kuparuk C),” the company said.
Fiord West is west of the FOP and north of the AOP, encompassing the western continuation of existing Fiord West Kuparuk and Fiord Nechelik accumulations, ConocoPhillips said, with Fiord West Kuparuk a third accumulation of Kuparuk C sandstone in the CRU, portions of which are covered by the existing AOP and FOP.
ConocoPhillips Alaska is operator and 100% working interest owner of producing intervals at CRU. It said participating areas at CRU would be unaffected by the pool expansion.
OOIP ConocoPhillips said original oil in place at Fiord West, prior to development, is estimated at between 28 and 116 million stock tank barrels, with estimates for the undeveloped extension west of the existing Fiord Nechelik reservoir from 98 to 167 million stock tank barrels. The company said the estimates are based on well control, core data analysis, 3D seismic and production data to date.
Within the Alpine reservoir, two primary potential development areas are the northwestern CD5 and southwestern CD5 areas, with OOIP estimates of 20 to 47 million stock tank barrels and 11 to 26 million stock tank barrels respectively.
ConocoPhillips said the OOIP numbers “are based on current information and are subject to change as additional reservoir data” from potential Alpine CD5 wells become available “and enhance the understanding of sand distributions.”
Development plan The AOP is being developed from four CRU drill sites: CD1, CD2, CD4 and CD5; FOP is being developed from CD3.
Fiord West reservoirs will be developed from CD2.
ConocoPhillips said future development includes continued horizontal drilling at CD5 in the Alpine A and C sands to the west, Alpine A sand to the southwest and initiation of Fiord West development.
“There are currently four western and four southwestern potential wells to target the Alpine sands,” the company said.
Fiord West will be the first application of extended reach drilling at Alpine, with Fiord West Kuparuk and Fiord Nechelik targets to be drilled from CD2. The company said there are seven Fiord West Kuparuk and 29 Fiord Nechelik potential wells using ERD technology.
Success of secondary and tertiary recovery in existing development “provides an analog for the expected performance of future development in the AOP,” the company said.
Primary recovery would yield up to 20% of OOIP, the company said.
With favorable rock properties and waterflood mobility throughout the proposed AOP reservoirs, enriched water alternating gas recovery is expected to yield an ultimate recovery from 50-70% of OOIP.
For Fiord Kuparuk and Fiord Nechelik, EWAG recovery is expected to be in the range of 30-35% of OOIP.
Production AOP oil, gas and water production will be commingled with production from other CRU pools and Greater Moose’s Tooth unit prior to processing at Alpine, ConocoPhillips said.
Sales quality crude oil will be sent to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through the Alpine Pipeline; water production will be injected; produced gas will be injected as dry gas for gas lift and drill site fuel or enriched for enhanced recovery.
“AOP production is expected to be fully compatible with production from other CRU pools and GMTU pools from both a production processing and injection perspective,” the company said.
AOGCC has tentatively scheduled a hearing on the application for Dec. 15 at 10 a.m. at its Anchorage offices but said if there are no timely requests filed for a hearing, it may consider issuance of an order without a hearing. Information on whether a hearing will be held can be obtained by calling 907-279-1433 after Nov. 30.
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