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Producers 2013: Savant: small, quiet, very active The smallest producer-operator in the history of the North Slope is working at one of the most challenging fields in the basin Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
In the coming year, Savant Alaska LLC plans to finish work it originally scheduled for this past winter and undertake other activities to increase production at the Badami unit.
Weather delays and a shortage of oilfield services forced the independent to leave some of its 2012 agenda for the Badami unit unfinished for the year, but Savant still managed a slight increase in oil production by working over an existing well at the easternmost producing unit on the North Slope and expects another bump this coming year as well.
In a two-year ninth plan of development running through November 2013, Savant had proposed to hydraulically fracture both the B1-18A sidetrack and the B1-38 well, but the company said it was unable to secure the necessary services for the work during the previous two winters. However, during the past plan, Savant was able to perform a propellant frack stimulation on the B1-38 well “to break down all perforated intervals.”
Savant is now aiming to complete those completion projects this year.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data indicate average production of 1,340 bpd in July of this year.
Economics of fracturing The B1-18A program aims to gauge the economics of hydraulically fracturing horizontal wells into the Badami sands interval of the Brookian formation. The B1-38 program aims to do the same for the deeper Killian sands, while also measuring the extent of the sands and the size of the reservoir, and corroborating previous seismic over the area. The information would underpin an application for a participating area for the Killian sands.
Savant expects those activities to yield a bump in production over the expected decline rate. Oil production has been relatively steady in the two and a half years since Savant brought the field back online, but has gradually been declining over the past year.
The 10th plan of development, running from July 2013 to November 2014, also calls for Savant to drill an exploration well into the East Mikkelsen oil prospect in the Killian sands, but the program first requires Savant to successfully appeal a prior state decision to exclude segments of the prospect from a unit expansion approved in March.
As part of the current plan, Savant recently relinquished some 6,000 acres from the western edge of the unit, acreage located outside the Badami Sands participating area.
Other work completed Savant completed several other tasks from the ninth plan, to various degrees.
The plan originally called for using a coiled-tubing rig to sidetrack the B1-16 and B1-28 wells into the Brookian to further test the effectiveness of horizontal drilling at the unit.
With the coiled-tubing rig unavailable, Savant used a conventional rig and an electric submersible pump on B1-16, which yielded 54,259 barrels of oil between May 2012 and March 2013 that the company said “would not have otherwise been produced.”
Savant restored integrity to the B1-28 well by repairing a tubing leak and the company said it was planning additional repairs needed to bring the well back online this summer.
Savant had also proposed to use a paraffin inhibitor to increase oil production at existing wells, but “issues related to cold weather impacted the efficacy of the paraffin inhibitor.”
In many ways, Savant’s biggest accomplishment during the ninth plan was taking over unit operatorship from BP, becoming the smallest producer-operator on the North Slope.
Kupcake to Badami Colorado-based Savant Resources LLC came to the state in 2006 to pursue the Kupcake prospect in Foggy Island Bay, some 20-miles west of the Badami unit.
Savant drilled the Kupcake No. 1 exploration well from an ice island in early 2008, but the results fell short of expectations. The target interval in the Kemik formation “was thinner than anticipated” and the porous Cretaceous sandstone proved to be “water wet.”
In mid-2008, the local affiliate Savant Alaska and ASRC Exploration LLC signed a deal with BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. to take on Badami in return for a stake in the unit.
Conoco Inc. discovered the Badami oil pool in 1990 with the Badami No. 1 well. BP started development drilling in 1997 and brought the field online in August 1998.
Oil production peaked at 7,450 bpd in September 1998, but fell to 3,300 bpd by January 1999 and BP shut-in the field through May 1999 to upgrade facilities. The field produced nearly 5,300 bpd in July 1999, but production fell to 3,000 bpd by the end of the year and 1,300 bpd by July 2003, when BP suspended operations for two years.
BP restarted the field in September 2005 and by October production was averaging 1,785 bpd, but by December it was down to 1,437 bpd and when BP suspended operations in August 2007 to allow the field to recharge, production was averaging some 876 bpd.
2010 drilling In early 2010, Savant drilled two penetrations at Badami, the B1-18A sidetrack of the B1-18 well BP drilled in 1998 and the B1-38 well into the Red Wolf prospect, located in a deeper interval than previous Badami development in the Brookian formation.
The goal of the sidetrack was to see if horizontal drilling could improve production at Badami. The production troubles at the field come from its notoriously complex geology, a series of turbidite sandstones deposited in channels with minimal communication.
The B1-38 well found oil in two horizons, the deeper Kekiktuk formation and the shallower late Cretaceous Killian sands. The Kekiktuk also contains the oil reservoir for the Endicott unit. Savant used the Killian sands to restart Badami in November 2010.
The unit produced 1,020 bpd through the first six months of 2011.
In early 2012, Savant drilled the Red Wolf No. 2 exploration well about two miles northwest of the bottomhole location for B1-38. The well also targeted the Kekiktuk, but the target zone was wet. The dry hole led Savant to suspend its pursuit of Red Wolf.
In May 2013, Savant transferred a 10 percent working interest and 8.75 percent royalty interest in deep zones at four Badami leases to Red Wolf Exploration LLC, a Wyoming-based independent created in April 2012 by eight small companies. The largest members, each with 25.54 percent ownership, are Nerd Gas Co LLC and Jonah Gas Co. LLC, two companies with minority stakes in the North Fork field in the southern Kenai Peninsula.
The transfer covered ADL 367005, ADL 367006, ADL 367010 and ADL 367011.
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