|
Western North Slope focus of operators’ winter exploration plans ARCO wants to drill in NPR-A, Alpine area this winter; BP says it’s looking at this winter or next, depending on permits, partner approvals, etc. Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The western North Slope is the focus of winter exploration plans that ARCO Alaska Inc. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. have begun discussing with state agencies.
ARCO has told regulators it is considering four locations within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, west of existing fields on state lands, as well as locations on state lands north and south of Alpine. Alpine, under development by ARCO and partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp., will be the farthest west oil production on the North Slope.
The NPR-A locations, staked earlier in the year and reported in the August issue of Petroleum News • Alaska, are southwest of Alpine. BP’s proposed NPR-A locations, also reported in the August issue of PNA, are farther west of Alpine than ARCO’s locations, and farther north, lying about midway between Harrison Bay and Teshekpuk Lake.
On state lands, ARCO proposes to drill one well in the Nechelik prospect, north of Alpine, and one in the Nanuk prospect, north of Nuiqsut and south of Alpine.
Nechelik prospect in Fiord area The Nechelik prospect, which lies partly in the Colville River unit in which ARCO Alaska and partner Anadarko are developing the Alpine field and partly to the west of the unit, begins at the Beaufort Sea and runs south. It encompasses the area where ARCO drilled its Fiord exploration wells from 1992 through 1999. ARCO and Anadarko said July 6 that the 5 Fiord well, drilled this winter, encountered oil-bearing sand in both a Jurassic reservoir and in the Kuparuk formation and that they estimate the Fiord accumulation contains more than 50 million barrels of proven and potential reserves.
ARCO began drilling at Fiord in 1992 and in December of that year announced a discovery at the 1 Fiord well. ARCO drilled the 2 Fiord in 1994 and the 3 Fiord and 3A Fiord in 1995.
The 4 Fiord well 2 miles northeast of 5 Fiord also encountered an oil-bearing Jurassic reservoir. Plans for further delineation and development of the Fiord field are under evaluation.
Sohio Alaska Petroleum Co., a predecessor of BP Exploration (Alaska), drilled the 10,018-foot 1 Nechelik exploration well in this area in 1982. Cores were recovered from the 6,338-7,230 foot range and from the 8,763-9,918-foot range. The well was plugged and abandoned in March 1982.
Nanuk prospect In the prospect south of Alpine, ARCO drilled the 7,630-foot 1 Nanuk exploration well in 1996. Formation logs from the well indicate “fair oil odor; spotty oil in mud” at approximately 6,250 feet and “spotty oil sheen in mud; fair oil odor” at approximately 7,300 feet. A plug and abandon proposal for the well shows hydrocarbon bearing zones at 3,800-4,100 feet, 6,145-6,300 feet and 7,200-7,350 feet. The well was plugged and abandoned in March 1996.
ARCO Alaska has told the state that it would begin ice road and ice pad construction for its NPR-A prospects in December, and drill one well in each of the following three months, January, February and March.
Getting to NPR-A Ice roads and ice drilling pads will be constructed beginning as soon as the weather permits.
BP has told state regulators it would share the Alpine ice road — 19 miles offshore around the Colville Delta and five miles on tundra. Then it would build 26 miles of additional ice road offshore in Harrison Bay and 16.5 to 23.5 miles of onshore ice road in NPR-A, with spurs to potential water and ice chip sources.
While ARCO is talking about drilling this season, BP has said that it will drill in 2000 or 2001. How quickly it will do exploratory drilling, BP said, depends on permits, technical evaluations and partner approvals.
BP noted that in addition to using maps, aerial photos and stipulations to position ice pads, and walking and staking all 16.5 miles to pads A, B and C, a field inspection Aug. 4 with agencies, North Slope Borough, Native elders and BP representatives resulted in one of the ice pad sites being repositioned.
|
