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BRPC re-enters North Tarn No. 1A well
Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. has re-entered an existing well at the Mustang field.
The local operating arm of a multiparty joint venture is currently re-entering the North Tarn No. 1A sidetrack - drilled in early 2012 - for fracture stimulation and testing.
The project comes as the company is looking for ways to address a year-end deadline for bringing the long-delayed and still unfinished North Slope oil field into production.
With a construction timetable that is expected to extend well beyond the approaching deadline, Brooks Range Petroleum is left with few options. One option is to seek an extension from the state Division of Oil and Gas, which already granted an extension in early 2016. Another option is to certify an existing well at the field as capable of producing in commercial quantities, which triggers protections for leases and units.
Earlier this year, the Alaska Industrial Export and Development Authority, a working interest owner on the Mustang project, said that Brooks Range Petroleum was working with the Walker administration and contractors on a plan to certify an existing well.
Brooks Range Petroleum drilled the North Tarn No. 1A sidetrack during the exploration phase of the project, along with the North Tarn No. 1 well and the Mustang No. 1 well.
According to a partner on the project, the company cased and plugged three vertical wells in such a way as to accommodate future re-entry, with the idea of potentially returning at some point to drill horizontal sections from the wells to accommodate oil production.
The announcement about the re-entry came from a plan of development for the Southern Miluveach unit, submitted to the state Division of Oil and Gas in early October. The division must either approve or reject the plan before the company can proceed with it.
The Mustang project is the first development in the Southern Miluveach unit.
In the plan, Brooks Range Petroleum said it expected to bring the Mustang field into production in early 2019, pushed back slightly from a previous target of late 2018. The company blamed its inability to resume development drilling and begin installing facilities at the onshore field just west of the Kuparuk River unit on “continued low oil prices.” The current timetable falls short of a December 2017 deadline imposed by the division for the company to bring the long-delayed Mustang field into production.
A previous drilling program at the unit was stalled by mechanical problems, largely involving higher than expected downhole pressures. Those issues have been resolved.
Pending workload If the division approves the plan of development, Brooks Range Petroleum would install on-pad piles in the first quarter of 2018 and install cross-country pipelines in late 2018 and early 2019. The company would also finish building the remaining modules, bringing the Alaska-built modules to the field between June and December 2018 and the Canadian-built modules to the field by sealift in August 2018. A 60-to-90-day system-wide review at the end of 2018 would immediately precede project start-up in early 2019.
To date, Brooks Range Petroleum has built the Mustang drilling pad and the Mustang road connecting the pad to Drill Site 2M at the Kuparuk River unit. The construction remaining at the development includes drill site facilities, a 15,000-barrel-per-day central processing facility, two cross-country pipelines, associated infrastructure such as communication and housing, and as many as 26 wells - nine production and 17 injection.
Brooks Range Petroleum operates the Mustang project on behalf of CaraCol Petroleum LLC, TP North Slope Development LLC, MEP Alaska LLC, Nabors Drilling Technologies USA Inc., AVCG LLC, Mustang Road LLC and MOC1 LLC. Mustang Road and MOC1 are both subsidiaries of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which helped finance both the Mustang Road and Mustang Pad projects.
Expansion plans Also outstanding is a previous application from Brooks Range Petroleum to significantly expand the Southern Miluveach unit to include acreages along its western flank.
The company asked the division to add approximately 19,552 acres from 11 leases to the north, west and northeast. The expansion would more than double the size of the unit.
In its application, Brooks Range Petroleum said the expansion acreage would only be marginally economic at current oil prices and North Slope operating costs. Incorporating the acreage into the unit would improve economics and also speedup development.
A proposed plan of exploration called for beginning exploration activities targeting the Torok formation as early as the 2018-19 winter drilling season, just as the company is expecting it would complete preliminary development activities at the Mustang field. If warranted by exploration results, road and pad construction would likely begin in early 2020 with development drilling in early 2022 and first oil by the end of that year.
- ERIC LIDJI
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