AOGCC OKs field contractions, expansions

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has approved contractions in two oil pools at the Prudhoe Bay unit on the North Slope, with the contraction areas — plus additional acreage — added to a third oil pool. The approvals, dated Dec. 18, are for contractions of the West Beach and Niakuk oil pools and expansions of the Point McIntyre oil pool.

Prudhoe Bay unit operator BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. told the commission in a Sept. 19 letter that BP, as unit operator, had received approval from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for corresponding changes in the participating areas.

The expansion request for the Point McIntyre pool was “based on new well information and new seismic interpretation that extends the field limits based on the area capable of contributing to production,” BP said. There are two Point McIntyre expansion areas — one of the north and one to the southeast — with the northern expansion the larger at some 2,588 acres and the southeast expansion at 560 acres.

The southeast expansion area at Point McIntyre includes contractions from the western edge of the Niakuk oil pool (320 acres) and the northern edge of the West Beach pool (240 acres).

In its orders the commission said the West Beach oil pool was discovered in 1976 and regular oil production began in April 1993 and continued through July 2001. Small amounts of oil have been produced since, with the last reported West Beach production in 2009.

First test of the Niakuk oil pool was in April 1985; regular production began in 1994 and is ongoing.

Point McIntyre was discovered in 1988; regular oil production began in 1993 and is ongoing.

—Kristen Nelson