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Brooks Range moving ahead at Mustang Three wells and pipeline supports planned for this winter; module fabrication in spring and summer 2015 followed by installation Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Nabors rig 16-E is about to move on site to drill three new wells in the North Slope Mustang field this winter, Jack Laasch, Brooks Range Petroleum’s operations strategy manager, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance Dec. 11. Having already completed the field’s gravel access road and pad, Brooks Range is continuing with the development of Mustang, with expectations of bringing the field on line in April 2016, Laasch said.
The field will have standalone production facilities on its pad, connecting by pipeline to the nearby ConocoPhillips’ Alpine oil line, for the delivery of produced oil to market via the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Brooks Range has previously said that it anticipates initial production from Mustang of 8,000 to 10,000 barrels per day, with the 15,000-bpd capacity of the field’s production facilities being capable of acting as an anchor for other developments in the immediate area of the field.
Mustang is adjacent the southwest perimeter of the Kuparuk River unit (see map).
Winter program Laasch said that this winter’s drilling program at Mustang will start with a well called Lippizon.
“What we are expecting to do is get mobilized, rigged up and start drilling around Christmas time,” he said.
After drilling Lippizon, an operation that should take about a month, the rig will drill the Shamrock well, the second well of this winter’s program. Testing of Lippizon and Shamrock will be followed by the drilling of Argo, the third well. All three wells should be completed by around March 25, Laasch said.
The eventual development plan for the field involves the use of slanted injection wells and horizontal production wells, he said.
Also this winter, Brooks Range plans to install pilings and pipeline vertical support members at the development site, with that work requiring careful coordination with the winter drilling activities.
The engineering of the field facilities is currently in progress and the procurement of long lead time items such as electrical generators has started. Brooks Range anticipates having the field modules fabricated in Alaska and expects to award construction contracts early in 2015, Laasch said. Module fabrication would take place during the spring and summer, in time for shipment to the field site in the fall. Ahead of moving the modules on site, Brooks Range plans to place a construction camp on the pad.
“We’re planning that coming up around Aug. 1,” Laasch said.
The construction camp will eventually become the long-term operations camp for the field, he said.
That will all lead to field startup in the planned April 2016 timeframe. Reflecting on the recent drop in oil prices, Laasch commented that, although Brooks Range has been planning on prices around $85, prices lower than that would not start to impact the project until later in 2016, after production is under way.
In August Thyssen Petroleum USA, the JK Group and Magnum Energy Partners acquired ownership of Brooks Range from Alaska Venture Capital Group and Ramshorn Investments, along with a 90 percent interest in the Alaska oil and gas holdings of the two former owners. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is providing some of the funding for the construction of the Mustang gravel road, the gravel pad and the field facilities. The working interest owners are paying the entire cost of exploration and development drilling.
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