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Hilcorp looks to expand, rename Cook Inlet unit South Middle Ground Shoal would be expanded by 11,503 acres, 3 leases; unit name would be changed to Middle Ground Shoal KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska LLC has applied to expand and rename the South Middle Ground Shoal unit in Cook Inlet. Hilcorp acquired two leases, ADL 18754 and ADL 18756, from XTO Energy in 2015 and became the operator of the A and C platforms. Hilcorp is now the sole working interest owner and operator, and has applied to the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas to expand South Middle Ground Shoal to include the former XTO operations as well as Hilcorp’s current lease operation of ADL 17595, location of the Baker Platform.
Hilcorp said the proposed expansion would then encompass the entire Middle Ground Shoal field.
The expansion area covers three state oil and gas leases, some 11,502 acres.
Hilcorp said the unit expansion would have no direct environmental impact, but would minimize administrative and operational efficiencies for both the state and the company. It said the unit expansion does not involve any activities not already authorized on either a lease-by-lease basis or as part of the South Middle Ground Shoal unit.
1960s platforms The A and C platforms and facilities at Middle Ground Shoal were installed by Shell in 1964 and 1967 and sold to Cross Timbers Oil Co. in 1998, transferring properties from a major which had worked on initial Cook Inlet development to an independent, focused on getting more oil out of an existing field past its peak and too small to be of continuing interest to a major producer.
Cross Timbers, later renamed XTO and now an ExxonMobil subsidiary, had a goal similar to Hilcorp’s when it acquired Middle Ground Shoal in 1998: To work mature fields no longer of interest to a major and produce additional oil and gas.
When Cross Timbers bought the properties in 1998 production was some 3,600 barrels per day; when Hilcorp acquired the properties from XTO in 2015 Hilcorp said production was some 1,750 bpd. Production earlier this year stood at 1,800-1,900 bpd.
The Baker and Dillon platforms were installed by Unocal in 1965 and 1966. Hilcorp acquired those properties from Chevron in a deal for Cook Inlet assets finalized in 2012.
Three plays present Hilcorp told the division there are three development plays present: shallow Tyonek gas, Tyonek oil sands and Hemlock oil sands. Fifty wells have been drilled to date, the company said, 35 producers and 15 injectors.
“Good potential exists for future exploration and development of the untested Jurassic formation,” Hilcorp said.
Hilcorp said it had submitted detailed confidential geologic and engineering presentations to the division on the field’s geologic and engineering characteristics and historic exploration and development activities.
The company said its 2016 proposed plan of development for the area, submitted to the division in March, covered plans for the consolidated Middle Ground Shoal field and said no changes to that consolidated POD are needed.
Only the A and C platforms are currently producing, but Hilcorp said it is “actively pursuing plans to return the Baker Platform to production and is evaluating a range of options required to return the current South Middle Ground Shoal Unit to production.”
Three fields share the Middle Ground Shoal name: North Middle Ground Shoal with the shut-in Baker Platform; Middle Ground Shoal with the active A and C platforms; and South Middle Ground Shoal with the lighthoused Dillon Platform. The platforms lie in the middle of Cook Inlet offshore northwest of Nikiski, with Baker the farthest north and Dillon the farthest south.
The division said the application was received May 16 and deemed complete May 24. Comments are being accepted through June 28.
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