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ConocoPhillips claims AK record
ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. has laid claim to having drilled the longest well ever in the state of Alaska. The well, drilled by Doyon Rig 19 from the CD5 drill site in the Colville River unit, has a measured depth of 26,196 feet, reaching a vertical depth of about 7,400 feet. The well, an injection well, includes a horizontal section of 17,228 feet, took 24 days to drill and penetrated the Alpine “A” sands, ConocoPhillips says.
The ConocoPhillips Alpine oil field in the Colville River unit was the first North Slope field to be developed exclusively using horizontal wells, ConocoPhillips says. The development strategy involves a pattern of horizontal injection and production wells, to extract oil from the subsurface reservoir.
This technique has proven particularly successful at CD5, the first operational drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, on the west side of the Colville River. Year-to-date oil production at the site has averaged 20,000 barrels per day, a production rate significantly above the original target of 16,000 barrels per day, ConocoPhillips says. The company says that it has approved funding for the drilling of additional wells and associated infrastructure to bring the pad to its full permitted well capacity.
Minimum drilling footprint “Longer wells allow the company to access more of the reservoir without increasing the gravel footprint of the development,” said Mike Wheatall, manager of drilling and wells for ConocoPhillips Alaska, when commenting about the new drilling record. “Ultimately, longer wells like these could mean more oil produced over a longer period of time.”
“This exciting drilling record at Alpine is a significant technological achievement,” said Joe Marushack, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska. “This accomplishment continues our tradition of innovation and developing resources in a way that minimizes impacts to the environment. It’s something I’m very proud of, and I congratulate our drilling employees and contractors for their excellent work.”
ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Natalie Lowman has told Petroleum News that modern improvements in rotary steerable drilling tools have made possible the drilling of longer wells. Managed pressure drilling, a procedure used to precisely control the pressure in the well bore, is also a key technology, Lowman said.
Drilling in Alaska Over the years the Alaska oil industry has kept at the leading edge of drilling innovation.
According to Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data, the measured-depth record was previously held by the Northstar unit NS-33A well, completed from Northstar Island in the Beaufort Sea by BP in 2009. That well achieved a measured depth of 26,090 feet. ConocoPhillips has also come close to achieving record well lengths in the past with wells drilled from the CD2 and CD4 sites in the Colville River unit: Those wells achieved measure depths of 25,007 and 25,040 feet. In 2015 Eni drilled a well to 24,986 feet in the Nikaitchuq unit.
- ALAN BAILEY
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