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Hilcorp applies for new Northstar rules Asks AOGCC to establish pool rules for a Kuparuk pool in the Beaufort Sea Northstar oil field offshore the North Slope ALAN BAILEY Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska LLC has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to establish pool rules for a proposed Kuparuk pool in the Northstar oil field. The Northstar field, operating from an offshore gravel island, straddles state and federal waters of the Beaufort Sea, offshore the North Slope, and is jointly overseen by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Hilcorp took over 100 percent ownership and operatorship of the field at the end of 2014, as part of a package of North Slope oilfield assets purchased from BP.
Since Northstar first went into production in 2001 oil has come from a reservoir in the Ivishak formation, a rock unit equivalent to the main reservoir in the giant Prudhoe Bay field, onshore the central North Slope. But wells at the field pass through younger and shallower Kuparuk sands, equivalent to reservoir sands in the onshore Kuparuk River field and also containing hydrocarbons.
Kuparuk production BP, the then field operator, began testing gas and condensate production from the Kuparuk in 2006. In 2010 the company began sustained production from the Kuparuk by plugging one of the Northstar production wells above the Ivishak. Using that well and information from other Ivishak wells in the field, BP mapped out a Kuparuk pool. Subsequently in 2012 the company applied for the designation of the Kuparuk at Northstar as the Hooligan participating area.
The state component of the participating area formation required the addition of two leases to the Northstar unit - the state approved this unit expansion in 2014. BSEE approved the participating area in 2014, and the state followed suit in 2015, by which time Hilcorp had become field operator. The definition of AOGCC pool rules for the Kuparuk represents the last stage in placing the state’s regulatory framework around Kuparuk production at Northstar. AOGCC, as part of its role in preventing the waste of state hydrocarbon resources, requires rules governing how hydrocarbon pools are produced.
Hilcorp proposes applying the pool rules to the Hooligan participating area, with the Kuparuk pool being defined as the hydrocarbon bearing intervals common to and correlating with the interval between measured depths of 12,136 feet and 12,446 feet in the NS-15 well.
Current wells According to the pool rules application, the Northstar field currently has 30 wells, 28 of which are in operation and two of which are shut in. Hilcorp is currently producing Kuparuk gas and condensate from two wells: the NS-08 well is producing from the Kuparuk C sands, while the NS-18 well is producing from the Kuparuk A sands. In 2016 and 2017 Hilcorp anticipates conducting two Kuparuk recompletions or workovers. The company also plans further Kuparuk development in parallel with an ongoing enhanced oil recovery project in the Ivishak reservoir, the pool rules application says.Gas ration exemption As part of the rules that Hilcorp has proposed to AOGCC for the Kuparuk, the company has asked for an exemption from a regulation limiting the ratio of gas to oil during oil production. This exemption would maximize recovery from the Kuparuk reservoir while allowing continued production from the Ivishak enhanced oil recovery project and from the NS-08 Kuparuk well, Hilcorp says.
Other proposed rules define how the reservoir pressure will be monitored, and the reporting procedures for the reservoir performance.
AOGCC has scheduled a public hearing at 9 a.m. on Nov. 15 to review Hilcorp’s pool rules application.
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