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Conditional OK for Middle Ground Shoal
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska has conditional approval for its Middle Ground Shoal unit plan of development.
In a June 1 decision on the 2021 POD for MGS, the Alaska Department of Natural Resource’ Division of Oil and Gas said the Middle Ground Shoal fuel gas system has been shut down since early April after a fuel gas leak was detected and as a result the MGS unit is shut-in while repair and/or replacement options are evaluated.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data show that the field, which produces both oil and gas, had production on only a single day in April.
Because of the shut-in status of MGS, division Director Tom Stokes said in the conditional approval that the division is requiring written updates at 60-day intervals beginning June 15 on the status of the MGS fuel gas system and “its impact on the execution of the developments contemplated by the 2021 MSGU POD, including any planned repair or replacement” of the fuel gas system, until the fuel gas system is operational.
Fuel gas release The fuel gas release was spotted April 1 by a helicopter pilot during supply delivery and reported by Hilcorp to the National Response Center and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The company immediately began shutting in the impacted facilities.
DEC said the 8-inch line had a prior leak in 2017 which also caused a field shut down until repairs could be made.
Platform A in the MGS field is the oldest in Cook Inlet, installed in 1964. MGS Platform C was installed in 1967.
The line currently used for fuel gas is encased in concrete. It was installed in 1965 and its design does not allow use of in-line inspection tools. It was pressure tested in 2005 and Hilcorp conducts annual side-scan or multi-beam eco-sounder surveys, but those do not provide enough information to allow the company to determine whether there are problems such as eroded pipe, rock impingements, dents, gouges or missing concrete coating.
In 2017 the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said the line had two previous leaks, the earliest in 2014.
Following this year’s leak, PHMSA is requiring Hilcorp to replace the fuel gas line and gave the company 45 days to submit a replacement work plan and 365 days from the April 6 order to complete the replacement.
2021 POD In its 2020 POD, Hilcorp proposed to evaluate rate-add opportunities from Platforms A and C and to evaluate recently completed subsurface for additional drilling opportunities from Platforms A, C and Baker, the division said. Production for the 2020 calendar year was some 452,000 barrels of oil and some 101 million cubic feet of natural gas, an increase of some 9.6 million cubic feet of gas and a decrease of some 6,900 barrels of oil from 2019.
In its 2021 POD, the company plans six workovers and will continue to evaluate other rate-adding opportunities, the division said, including new rotary and coil tubing drilling targets.
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