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Drilling will be challenge
at Point Thomson, says Williams
Kristen Nelson, PNA editor-in-chief
The industry has drilled into 10,000 psi reservoir pressures. And drilled extended reach wells of more than three miles. The trick at Point Thomson will be doing both at the same time, Jack Williams, Alaska production manager for ExxonMobil Production Co. told the Resource Development Council May 16.
ExxonMobil is the operator and 36 percent working interest owner at the Point Thomson unit on the eastern side of the North Slope, where a gas cycling project is planned to develop the high-pressure condensate field.
The company began filing development permits last summer and Williams said ExxonMobil has been waiting to start talking about the project until the notice of intent was published in the Federal Register April 19, initiating the environmental impact statement process.
Development decision in 2003-2004 The project is in the early stages, said Williams, but if it stays on schedule a final development decision would be made by the working interest owners in late 2003 or 2004.
The basis of that decision, he said, will be project costs and the project’s ability to get permits.
If the project is approved by the Point Thomson owners, start-up is anticipated for year-end 2006. The owners would need permitting certainty by the end of 2003, Williams said, so that long-lead equipment could be ordered in time for a 2006 sealift.
Development drilling would begin in the winter of 2005-2006, with extended reach wells going out under the Beaufort. Williams said technology since the field was discovered means a much smaller footprint. When development was discussed in the late 1980s, he said, the companies expected to need eight drilling pads to accommodate wells producing at less than 40 million cubic feet a day. This plan has two drill pads and one re-injection pad and the wells will produce at more than 100 million cubic feet per day.
Williams said rig modifications will be required for Point Thomson and that a two-rig program is most likely.
Peak production of 75,000 bpd Reserve estimates are 8 trillion cubic feet of gas and 400 million barrels of condensate at the 116,724-acre Point Thomson unit. Peak production is estimated at 75,000 barrels of condensate per day.
The condensate will be extracted from the gas and shipped to market and the dry gas will be injected back into the reservoir for pressure maintenance and future use.
The high-pressure re-injection rate will be higher than any currently being done, he said, and heavy drilling mud will be required for the wells.
Williams said the working interest owners have spent some $800 million over the years on leases and work at Point Thomson. Development cost, in addition to that already spent, is expected to exceed $1 billion and include a 22-mile pipeline to Badami.
The economics of the project are based on a 30-year condensate production and gas cycling project, Williams said, but that wouldn’t prohibit gas sales at some point.
Principal owners are operator ExxonMobil, BP, ChevronTexaco and Phillips.
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