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BRPC proposing Putu unit near Nuiqsut Third unit proposed by the joint venture this year would delineate and develop the Tofkat prospect last explored in early 2008 Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
A joint venture led by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. is proposing its second unit in the “billion-dollar fairway” between the Kuparuk River unit and the Colville River on Alaska’s North Slope.
The proposed Putu unit would cover some 39,994 acres over 28 leases, of which 11 are owned by the State of Alaska and 17 are owned jointly by the state and Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
That area abuts the village of Nuiqsut and in 2007, Brooks Range and its partners negotiated a surface access agreement with the Kuukpik Corp., the local Native corporation, making it one of only two companies to have negotiated such an agreement.
The proposed five-year term would run through March 31, 2016.
The joint venture includes Alaska Venture Capital Group LLC (the Kansas-based parent company of Brooks Range), Brooks Range Development Corp. (the local development affiliate of Brooks Range), TG World Energy Inc. and Ramshorn Investments Inc.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments on the proposal through Aug. 18.
Six-well exploration plan The companies began acquiring leases in the area in 2003.
Brooks Range told DNR that the working interest owners have spent “well over” $25 million to date exploring the proposed unit area.
That includes a major exploration campaign in early 2008, when Brooks Range and its partners drilled the Tofkat No. 1 well and the Tofkat No. 1A and 1B sidetracks and acquired more than 220 square miles of 3-D seismic, covering the entire proposed unit.
That exploration work identified “many potential hydrocarbon accumulations and additional prospects.” Brooks Range is now proposing the Tofkat development project to target a Kuparuk formation reservoir discovered during the 2008 drilling campaign.
If the project is sanctioned and successful, Brooks Range could rent space on the nearby Colville River unit facilities, but as of now the company plans to build independent processing facilities to connect any production to the common carrier Alpine Pipeline.
Production possible by 2015 Brooks Range is proposing to have permits in place for the Tofkat development project by the end of 2013 and to apply for the formation of a participating area by the end of 2014, and projected that it could begin production from the unit as early as July 2015.
Because it would use that production center to improve the economics of other potential accumulations, Brooks Range is also proposing a six-well exploration campaign.
In its unit plan, Brooks Range divided the unit into three exploration blocks and proposed to drill a well in each by the end of March in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Alternately, Brooks Range could localize those wells if drilling results concluded that focused delineation would be more beneficial than broader exploration in the short term.
The company would then apply for a second unit plan by April 2016 and proceed to drill three more wells by deadlines at the end of March in 2017, 2019 and 2021, respectively.
Currently, the priority for those wells is:
•The Kuparuk formation in the North exploration block;
•The Kuparuk formation in the Southeast exploration block;
•The Alpine formation in the Southwest exploration block; and
•The Alpine formation in the Southeast exploration block.
A preliminary work plan for the winter of 2012 and 2013 involves site preparation, building a 1.5-mile ice road from the annual Alpine ice road to the drilling site and building an ice pad, drilling a Tofkat No. 2 well and possibly performing a flow test.
Previous drilling found oil Originally known as Titania, Brooks Range began calling the prospect Tofkat in 2007 to avoid confusion with a similarly named ConocoPhillips exploration program.
Phillips Petroleum originally included Titania/Tofkat as an extension of the Colville River unit in 2002, but never drilled at the prospect and allowed the unit to contract.
Brooks Range ultimately drilled Tofkat No. 1 to 13,174 feet.
Log analysis of the Tofkat No. 1 well showed an interval of 10 feet of gross pay and between four and six feet of net pay, the joint venture told Petroleum News in April 2008.
The companies ultimately took 10 oil samples from four sandstone reservoirs, finding:
•22.9-24.0 degree API oil in the Brookian Topset 1 at 6,128 feet;
•13.4-14.7 degree API oil in the Brookian Topset 2 at 6,294 feet;
•36.6-38.2 degree API oil in the Brookian Turbidites at 11,000 feet; and
•41.8-42.0 degree API oil in the Kuparuk zone at 11,943 feet.
The deepest Kuparuk zone showed properties similar to oil in the Kuparuk Nanuq field, partner TG World elaborated in May 2008. The Brookian Turbidite zone “appears to be in a low porosity reservoir where penetrated,” but the formation “is productive in nearby fields where better sandstone facies are developed,” the company wrote in a statement. Finally, “the heavier oil properties for the two shallower reservoirs are characteristic for the North Slope” but the “sands were in low porosity reservoirs where penetrated, but are productive in nearby fields where better sandstone facies are developed,” TG World said.
Moving toward development Brooks Range and its partners are clearly in the process of expanding their scope from an active exploration outfit to a potential producer across numerous North Slope assets.
Although the company does not yet have production in Alaska, it currently operates one unit and is waiting for approval on another three. The joint venture formed the Beechey Point unit in 2009 over its leases in the Gwydyr Bay area north of the Prudhoe Bay unit and since the start of 2011, the companies have proposed three additional units:
•The Southern Miluveach unit over its North Tarn No. well one mile northeast of Putu;
•The Greater Bullen unit over its undrilled acreage south of the Point Thomson unit; and
•The newly proposed Putu unit over its Tofkat prospect along the Colville River.
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