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Fifth Prudhoe Bay satellite field discovery in 18 months
Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
A new Prudhoe Bay Kuparuk formation satellite field was discovered at the V-200 well drilled earlier this year. The well, in the northwest corner of the Prudhoe Bay unit, encountered a 58-foot vertical section of oil-bearing sand in the Kuparuk formation, ARCO Alaska Inc. said March 23.
This Kuparuk accumulation, which will be named the Aurora field, tested more than 1,900 barrels per day of 30 degree API oil and 1.3 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The accumulation is estimated to contain 20 million to 35 million recoverable barrels of oil. Prudhoe Bay satellites are oil and gas accumulations in or around the Prudhoe Bay field which are not part of the main reservoir.
The V-200 discovery well is on a lease in which ARCO Alaska and Exxon Company USA each own a 50 percent interest. Adjacent leases are held by ARCO, Exxon, Mobil Alaska E&P Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Co.
The four companies are involved in evaluating plans for additional appraisal activities at Aurora during 1999. The V-200 well was drilled from an ice pad; 1999 appraisal activities would be done from existing gravel in the area, ARCO Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience told PNA.
Patience said this is the fifth Prudhoe Bay satellite discovered within the last 18 months. Eight other wells were drilled to discover and delineate the nearby Midnight Sun, Sambuca, Northwest Eileen Kuparuk and S-Pad and W-Pad Schrader Bluff satellites. Patience said that Midnight Sun is on test production while the rest are under appraisal. Midnight Sun testing Kuparuk formation Long-term test production started from the Midnight Sun oil field adjacent to Prudhoe Bay in October. The Midnight Sun field was part of a double discovery made just north of the Prudhoe Bay unit in 1997 on a lease owned 50 percent by ARCO and 50 percent by Exxon. The well encountered a 100-foot vertical section of oil and gas bearing rock in Kuparuk sands and also a deeper 160-foot vertical section of rock in the Sag/Ivishak formation. The Kuparuk formation Midnight Sun interval tested at 4,000 barrels per day of 29 degree API gravity oil and 1.5 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The second interval, named the Sambuca field, tested 1,400 barrels per day of 24 degree API gravity oil and 490,000 standard cubic feet a day of gas. ARCO has estimated proven and potential reserves in both reservoirs at 30-50 million barrels of oil.
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