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Forcenergy to operate Anschutz’ Copper River exploration license Exploration drilling from Osprey platform expected to begin by Nov. 1; onshore exploration well spud at Kustatan field Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
Forcenergy Inc. will operate the Copper River exploration license won Aug. 25 by Anschutz Exploration Corp. of Denver. Forcenergy, purchased by Forest Oil of Denver in a sale expected to close in November, is getting the rig in place on the Osprey platform to drill exploratory wells at its Cook Inlet Redoubt Shoal prospect.
Kevin Corbett, new ventures manager for Anschutz, told PNA that subsequent to winning the exploration license, Anschutz entered into agreement with Forcenergy to jointly explore the area. Forcenergy will be the operator; each company will have a 50 percent interest.
Anschutz bid a $1.42 million work commitment for the license, the first the state has granted under its exploration license program, including field work, acquiring and reprocessing existing seismic data for the area and acquiring and interpreting new seismic data.
“Because of our presence here, our ability to work with local contractors, it made sense for us to be the operator,” Gary Carlson, Forcenergy vice president for Alaska, told PNA Oct. 10.
Carlson said Forcenergy has a team assigned to the Copper River prospect, and that the company is working now to negotiate access to existing information, and will have a team in the field soon.
“We’re looking for oil and gas but it’s very likely gas prone in that area,” Carlson said.
Carlson said that if gas is found, it could be used by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. as fuel at its area pump station; communities in the area would benefit from access to gas. If a lot of gas were found in the area, depending on how natural gas is moved off the North Slope, “there may be a way to integrate into that system,” he said.
The Copper River basin exploration project was a good fit for Forcenergy, Carlson said. It gives the company, with its base in Cook Inlet, a chance to do real exploration, he said, and with the possibility of bringing gas from the Copper River basin to Anchorage, “it’s kind of natural for us.” Rig being installed on Osprey Forcenergy is getting ready to drill exploration wells from the Osprey platform at Redoubt Shoal in Cook Inlet. Carlson said the piles have been driven and the platform is set in place. “We’ve got our rig 60-70 percent boated out at this point,” he told PNA in early October. The rig is being assembled on the platform, and “we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to spud by Nov. 1 or possibly sooner,” Carlson said.
Forcenergy has a permit for five exploratory wells. “It will depend upon the success of each well but it is possible that we would drill three or four and then drill a service well — a water and cuttings disposal well — as part of the first five. But our plan,” he said, “is to continue drilling until we delineate the field.”
The company is well into permitting for the production phase at Redoubt Shoal, Carlson said.
If results from the exploration wells are what the company anticipates, and if production permits are in hand by next summer, “our intention is to install pipelines, production facilities and try to be on production by … early 2002,” Carlson said.
“And as part of the process there, that if we get the permits in time, it’s possible that we would go right from exploratory — our exploratory drilling permit — to our field development permit and continue drilling until the field is fully drilled up.” Water flood from early on Not all of the wells will be production. Typical Cook Inlet oil fields are under saturated — the oil does not contain much gas in solution with the oil, Carlson said. Where there is gas in solution, he said, it is released from the oil as oil is pumped from the reservoir, maintaining the pressure needed to produce the oil. Without such a solution gas drive, water needs to be pumped in to maintain pressure and keep oil production up.
“Within a year of coming on production we would anticipate starting a water injection program to maintain the reservoir pressure and maximize our oil recovery,” Carlson said. He said the company anticipates doubling the production it would get under primary depletion by using water flood to maintain reservoir pressure.
Carlson said the Osprey platform is set up for 28 wells, seven in each leg: “with success, we will drill seven wells out of that leg before we move to another leg.” Designed wells based on 3-D data Assuming the project is successful, Carlson said the company anticipates “going to designer-type wells like they use on the North Slope during the field development phase,” reducing the number of wells that need to be drilled.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to that point but I think because of our excellent 3-D coverage early on, and the number of wells that were drilled prior to us putting the unit together, that we probably have a better picture of what the reservoir looks like that some of the other fields that they developed as they went along.”
Most of the equipment for the development phase — power generation, water flood equipment, filters, pumps, gas treating — will be on shore, Carlson said. Along with pipelines, a power cable will run to the platform.
“We designed the whole project with this in mind. We set the platform closer to shore. We set it in a flat area, that could easily — with current drilling technology — we could reach the reservoir efficiently by drilling all directional wells and yet we’re close enough to shore to be able to install pipelines simply and cheaply.”
This platform is also designed, Carlson said, to re-inject all of the produced water. A high-pressure line back to the platform from facilities on shore will allow the produced water to be reinjected into either a disposal well or injection wells.
Forcenergy intends to set the exploration wells up for production, he said.
“Our intention is that every one of these wells will be converted to a production or injection well. We hope we’re not drilling any expendable wells at this point. That was one of the reasons for a platform like this.”
Carlson said the drilling the first well is expected to take a couple of months. Other platform designs possible The Osprey platform — designed so that it could be moved if necessary, and also so that it can be turned from an exploration into a production platform — isn’t the end of innovation for Cook Inlet field development, Carlson said.
“I don’t think we’re going to stop with the Osprey-type design. I think there are other unique designs that you can come up with to develop fields there, and I think what it’s going to take is after we have an understanding of where these prospects are, water depths, position in relationship to other infrastructure, you’ll see some other unique designs out there. We’re going to look at them …
“It’s going to take that to develop some of these smaller fields. We’re not through figuring out ways to do things.” GTL and Forest Oil Carlson said the interest of Forest Oil in gas-to-liquids technology is partly related to prospects Forest has in Canada and to the fact that they are starting to drill off the coast of South Africa, where GTL technology has been utilized for years.
“Obviously that’s something that should not be dismissed as a way to commercialize natural gas either here, if there’s enough in the inlet, or especially on the North Slope.” Carlson said he testified in Washington, D.C., even though he is not yet a Forest Oil employee, because of the Forcenergy Alaska connection. Just exactly what the role of Forest Oil would be in an Alaska GTL project “would depend on a whole bunch of things that haven’t been done yet,” Carlson said. But the company does have an interest in the technology and is looking for gas in the state.
Successful drilling at West McArthur River Carlson said Forcenergy, which operates the West McArthur River field on the west side of Cook Inlet, just completed a well that came in at more than 2,000 barrels of oil a day.
At the company’s Tom Cat prospect at West Forelands, Forcenergy is ready to spud the 1 Kustatan Field well, which Carlson said would take about a month and a half to drill. Also in the West Forelands area, he said the company is still working with state and federal agencies to start up an old well which the company will use as a source of fuel gas for its West McArthur River operations.
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