Prudhoe reservoir penetrations to hit record level in 2001

Kay Cashman

Reservoir penetrations are expected to go to record levels in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area in 2001, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. spokesman Ronnie Chappell told PNA recently. The increase between this year's 90 penetrations and next year's anticipated 115 penetrations will be largely from new wells drilled by traditional rotary rigs, Chappell said.

“Drilling activity at Prudhoe Bay this year has been at the near record levels of '97, '96 and 95. We've not been at the record level of 100 penetrations that we saw in '98 but it's still up substantially from '99. We're going to see record levels in 2001,” he said.

“What occurred between '93 and this year is that coiled tubing has basically captured a very large share of the drilling at Prudhoe Bay. In 1993, CT accounted for a very small portion of the number of penetrations drilled at Prudhoe,” Chappell said.

This year, he said, three-quarters of the 90 reservoir penetrations drilled by BP's drilling division (see related story this page) were drilled with coiled tubing units: “We had developed a lower cost technology and we were using it. ... We have three coiled tubing units working seven days a week, 24 hours per day, at Prudhoe.

“We see Prudhoe reservoir penetrations kicking up to 115 in 2001 in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area,” Chappell said. “A lot of the new work will be satellite drilling; new wells that will be drilled with traditional rotary drill rigs.”