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Expanding the scope ConocoPhillips Alaska talking about three more Alpine satellites for a total of five; company plans to sanction Alpine facility expansion next year Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
The western North Slope is an area of growth for ConocoPhillips and the company is looking at developing five satellites to the Alpine field, and expanding the Alpine facilities to handle the additional production, Alpine is the major field within the Colville River unit.
“We’ve identified five potential satellites to the Alpine field,” ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. President Kevin Meyers, told analysts Nov. 22. “We see five potential additional drill sites there,” with one or more of those drill sites in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
ConocoPhillips plans to sanction the first phase of Alpine facility expansion next year, he said.
Prior to this time, the company has talked publicly about only two Alpine satellites, Nanuq and Fiord.
Known discoveries in the area The discoveries in the Alpine area over the past few years include Nanuq, south of Alpine, and Fiord to the north; both are on state lands in the Colville River unit (see the map on page 15). In NPR-A discoveries include Spark, Moose’s Tooth, Lookout and Rendezvous, west and southwest of the unit.
Phillips Alaska Inc. (now ConocoPhillips Alaska) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced test production from Nanuq near Alpine in 2001, and said the accumulation is estimated to contain more than 40 million barrels of gross recoverable reserves. The Fiord discovery was pegged at more than 50 million barrels of gross recoverable reserves.
The NPR-A discoveries are 15 to 25 miles southwest of Alpine. The companies did not provide an estimate of recoverable barrels from the NPR-A discoveries, but the Alaska Department of Revenue used an estimate of 400 million barrels recoverable from the Rendezvous-Spark discoveries in its 2002 fall revenue forecast, with the caveat that major additional investment will be required to bring these reserves online.
Other wells in area As to the other satellites — and what the reserves would be — the adjacent map from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shows drilling in the Alpine area, most of it Colville River unit production wells.
But the map also includes exploration wells drilled in the area and Revenue included in its fall forecast estimates of production from Alpine satellites, listed as “Nanuq, Fiord, etc.”, at 180 million barrels recoverable, twice the recoverable reserves the companies have stated for Nanuq (40 million) and Fiord (50 million).
ConocoPhillips would not identify the satellites under consideration for development. Dawn Patience, ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman, told PNA Dec. 6:
“This is just one more step in assessing the economics of future developments to the west. A decision on funding the development of these projects will not be made until late 2004.”
Distance from processing Distance from a processing facility is a factor in whether accumulations can be developed as satellites — or would require a new processing facility, as Alpine did.
An official with ConocoPhillips predecessor Phillips Alaska Inc. told PNA in 2001 that process engineers had to assess whether oil from Meltwater, the most distant of the Kuparuk satellites, could reach processing facilities unassisted. Meltwater is only 10 miles from Tarn, the nearest Kuparuk satellite, but 25 miles from the production facilities at Kuparuk.
Pumps were a consideration, as was partial processing at Meltwater, he said, but the engineers finally decided that with a large diameter pipe the energy of the reservoir would move the oil the 25 miles to the facilities, and Meltwater was developed as a drill pad, rather than a partial processing pad.
Alpine expansion to be phased Meyers said the Alpine facility would be expanded to accommodate the five new drill sites. The first phase of expansion is expected to be sanctioned next year, he said.
“And we’re going to time those expansions consistent as we bring on those satellites.”
The Alpine facility, built to handle an expected 80,000 barrels per day, has at times handled more than 100,000 barrels a day.
The first additional production for Alpine would probably come from Fiord and Nanuq: under consideration for development for some time. Applications to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late 2001 to lay gravel for the two pads said the proposed Colville Delta South (Nanuq) pad would be some five miles north of Nuiqsut and four miles south of the Alpine central processing facility.
The CD North (Fiord) pad would be approximately five miles north of the Alpine processing facility. A proposed timetable in that application said that, subject to permit approval, construction could begin in February 2003.
Patience told PNA Dec. 6 that the company “is working closely with state and federal regulatory agencies to evaluate our options for permitting future western North Slope developments, including an EIS option.”
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