Repsol 2013 exploration results released

Well completion reports available from AOGCC for three wells, one sidetrack, company drilled in past North Slope winter season

KRISTEN NELSON

Petroleum News

Reports Repsol USA submitted to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for wells it drilled in the 2013 winter season on the North Slope have passed the 24-month confidentiality period and are now in the public record.

Two of the four wells, Qugruk No. 1 and Qugruk No. 6, were tested for oil and gas production.

The company reported that the Qugruk No. 1 flowed 395 barrels of 27 API gravity oil on a 10-hour test, the equivalent of 950 bpd over a 24-hour period. The well also flowed 110 thousand cubic feet of natural gas over 10 hours, the equivalent of 264 mcf over 24 hours.

The well was drilled some 12 miles west of Oooguruk Island in the Colville River Delta (section 28, township 13 north, range 6 east, Umiat Meridian), and reached a total vertical depth of 6,328 feet and a measured depth of 8,180 feet. Production was from the Nuiqsut formation at some 6,574 feet vertical depth. Nuiqsut is one of the producing pools at the Caelus Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.

In correspondence with its application for a permit to drill, Repsol told the commission the Qugruk No. 1 would be a vertical pilot hole to a depth of some 7,066 feet with a 1,200-foot lateral in the Nuiqsut formation. Following stimulation and a drill stem test in the lateral, the plan was to plug and abandon the well.

The Qugruk No. 1 was spud Feb. 4, 2013; it reached total depth March 26, 2013; and was plugged and abandoned April 27, 2013. The production test was April 12, 2013.

Qugruk No. 6

That well produced 52.6 barrels of 37 degree API crude oil over a nine-hour test period, the equivalent of 140 bpd, and 634.8 mcf of natural gas over the test period, the equivalent of 1,692 mcf per day.

Production was from the Nechelik formation at some 6,451 feet vertical depth. Nechelik is one of the formations producing at the Fiord participating area of the Colville River Delta. Fiord is produced from CD-3.

The Qugruk No. 6 was spud Feb. 14, 2013; reached total depth March 27, 2013; and was plugged and abandoned May 1, 2013. The production test was April 13, 2013.

Paperwork in the commission’s files indicates that oil from the tests at both wells was transferred to Eni, which operates the Nikaitchuq field.

Qugruk No. 3, No. 3A

The No. 3 well was spud Feb. 27, 2013, and reached a total depth of 7,500 feet March 23, 2013. In its application for abandonment Repsol said that a well log reviewed with commission staff showed two areas of potential hydrocarbon zones; the well was not tested.

The sidetrack, the No. 3A, was spud April 2, 2013, and total depth of 10,546 feet measured depth and 7,205 feet vertical depth was reached April 12; the sidetrack was plugged and abandoned May 1, 2013.

Total depth of both wells was in the Nuiqsut formation.

The 3A was shut in with the blow out preventer twice, April 14 and 21, due to gas cut mud flowing to the surface.

Repsol has been working on the North Slope since it acquired acreage in 2011 and in June reported successful testing at two 2015 wells, the Qugruk 8, which flowed 30 degree API gravity crude at rates up to 2,160 bpd and the Qugruk 301, a horizontal well, which flowed rates as high as 4,600 bpd.

Both of those wells are just east of the Colville River unit, the Qugruk 301 adjacent to the Qugruk 3 and the Qugruk 8 just south of that well.

Repsol is operator, with a 70 percent stake, in North Slope exploration prospects; 70 & 48 LLC, a subsidiary of Armstrong Oil & Gas, holds a 22.5 percent interest; GMT Exploration Co., holds 7.5 percent.

—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.