BP applies to expand Milne Point

Kristen Nelson, Petroleum News editor-in-chief

BP Exploration (Alaska) applied April 7 to expand the Milne Point unit and the Schrader Bluff participating area on Alaska's North Slope. BP is operator and 100 percent working interest owner at Milne Point.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, said the proposed expansion area is on the southeast border of the Milne Point unit and northwest of the Prudhoe Bay unit, sections 5 and 8 of township 12 north range 11 east, Umiat Meridian, and would include some 1,280 acres, the eastern half of ADL 380110. The western half of this lease is already in the unit.

BP told the state this is acreage where the Schrader Bluff formation is believed “to be commercially viable at this time” and said it estimates that gross proven Schrader Bluff reserves within the expansion area are 10.9 million barrels of oil “subject to oil-water contacts.” BP said it does not currently anticipate any further expansion of the Schrader Bluff participating area.

The expansion request is based on the development plans of the Schrader Bluff horizon at BP's newly constructed Milne Point S pad. S pad was sanctioned in June of 2000 and “is on schedule to develop BP's viscous oil strategy in Alaska,” BP told the state. Fourteen production wells and 20 injection wells with facilities infrastructure are under development at S pad. Plans this year call for drilling beyond current Milne Point unit and Schrader Bluff participating area boundaries “in order to fully develop the reserve potential,” the company said.

One producer-injector pattern is planned in the expansion area. BP said it might drill a second pattern to increase ultimate recovery, depending on the location of the oil-water contact.