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Pioneer files ops plan for Nuna project Module fabrication would get under way this year, first pad 2013, development drilling through 2018, first oil production 2014 Petroleum News
Although Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has not yet announced the results of its Nuna 1 appraisal well from this past winter, it has filed a lease plan of operations with Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas, indicating it hopes to move forward with its two-pad Nuna development, which would involve between 35 and 65 horizontal wells, targeting primarily the Torok reservoir, although other zones might include the Kuparuk, Nuiqsut and Ivishak.
The plan of operations was similar to the original plan filed with the division about a year ago.
Per its agreement with the state for expanding its nearshore Oooguruk unit to include the Nuna project leases, Pioneer has to decide by June 30, 2014, whether it plans to sanction development.
Pioneer spokesman Casey Sullivan told Petroleum News April 19 that the project has not been sanctioned.
Both pads on shore In Pioneer’s plan both pads are onshore, targeting offshore targets, with production expected to begin in 2014.
In a smaller Torok participating area in the main part of the Oooguruk unit, Pioneer estimated in 2011 that the Torok PA contained as much as 690 million barrels of original oil in place and believed it could recover as much as 25 percent of that using primary and enhanced recovery techniques. But in 2011 the company has also mentioned 50-100 million barrels of recoverable oil in connection with the Nuna development.
In the division’s April 16 public notice, asking for comments on the development, the state said Pioneer planned to build “two onshore production drillsites, roads, flowlines and power lines elevated on vertical support members, and a pig launching and receiving tie-in pad on state of Alaska oil and gas leases,” including two Pioneer leases (390505, 390697) and six ConocoPhillips leases (390506, 025528, 025844, 380107, 025532, 025531).
Hydrocarbon resources, the target mainly being oil, would be accessed using horizontal drilling into the following state leases: 355038, 355039, 391459, 390504, 380505, 390434 and 390505, all held by Pioneer and Eni, with one lease owned 100 percent by Pioneer. (PN was unable to locate information about the status of leases 390504 and 380505 prior to going to press.)
NDS1 at site of Nuna 1 One of the proposed gravel drillsites, NDS1, which is at the site of the Nuna 1 well Pioneer drilled this winter, would be two and a half miles northwest of Drillsite S-3S, commonly known as DS-3S, in the Conoco-operated Kuparuk River unit. It is approximately 1,000 feet from the Colville River.
The other proposed gravel drillsite, NDS2, would be about 4 miles upriver from NDS1, approximately 600 feet from the Colville.
Flowlines would transport production, gas and water between the drillsites and the Oooguruk tie-in pad, OTP.
North of DS-3S a junction tie-in pad would be built to launch and receive NDS2 flowline cleaning and inspection pigs.
Pioneer wants to build gravel roads from DS-3S for year-round access and support activities.
The flowlines would be separated from the gravel roads by at least 500 feet.
Power would be generated using existing and expanded power generation equipment at the OTP and transmitted to the drillsites on lines suspended on the flowline vertical support members.
Pioneer’s plan includes 25-50 wells at NDS1 and 10-15 at NDS2.
About half would be producers and half injector wells, and one at each drillsite would be a Class I/II Underground Injection Control disposal well.
Multiphase flowlines for oil, gas and water would transport the produced fluids from the drillsites to the Oooguruk tie-in pad and “eventual transmission through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.”
Economic benefits to borough In the economic benefits portion of its proposed plan for Nuna, among other things Pioneer said about the North Slope Borough that, “The tax valuation for capital in place will likely be $165 million over the first 10 years,” and that the borough “would likely receive $33 million” in property taxes from Nuna.
First drillsite design, facilities Pioneer plans to build NDS1 first, using about 275,000 cubic yards of gravel.
NDS1will support drilling and production operations, the company said.
The drillsite will encompass about 23 acres, and be designed to support as many as 50 wells on 30-foot spacing.
The spacing between the wells is “based on potential drilling rigs capable of reaching the reservoir targets and to minimize the thawing of the permafrost soil,” Pioneer said.
The pad is L-shaped with the base of the L to contain support facilities and the remaining area the row of wells.
Dimensions will be about 750 by 360 feet for the support facilities section and 300 by 1,600 feet for the well row, with a nominal thickness of 8-10 feet of gravel fill, bringing the surface elevation to about 12 feet mean sea level.
“Gravel bag slope erosion protection would be provided by a system of 1.5-4 cubic yard gravel-filled bags,” Pioneer said in its operations plan.
Second drillsite There is a chance the second drillsite, NDS2, would be developed with the first, but Pioneer said it “will probably be constructed near the end of the drilling campaign at NDS1.
NDS2 will be about 12 acres, designed for as many as 15 wells.
Also L-shaped, the dimensions will be about 750 by 360 feet for the support facilities section and 300 by 490 feet for the well row, with a nominal thickness of about 5-7 feet of gravel.
The amount of gravel fill would be about 120,000 cubic yards.
In Pioneer’s plan heated modular buildings, production modules, would be installed at each drillsite. They would be 15 by 40 by 14 feet high.
Pioneer’s proposed development schedule (see adjacent chart) includes module fabrication getting under way this year, the first pad built in 2013, and development drilling from 2014 through 2018.
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