Drilling shows Walakpa gas pool larger

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has expanded the area of the Walakpa gas pool in conservation order 274 to reflect results of recent development drilling by the North Slope Borough, the pool operator.

Walakpa, along with the East Barrow and South Barrow gas fields, supplies natural gas to the City of Barrow, with the majority of gas coming from Walakpa.

The borough drilled additional development wells in the Walakpa and East Barrow fields last winter, with Petrotechnical Resources Alaska providing technical and management services for the project.

In an April request for expansion of the pool, PRA told the commission that one of the new wells, Walakpa 13, extends into section 22 of township 20 north, range 20 west, Umiat Meridian, a section not included in the CO 274 pool definition. PRA said the borough requested that all of section 22 and the north half of section 27 be included in the pool rules area for the Walakpa gas pool.

In a Sept. 4 ruling the commission said the recently drilled horizontal production well, Walakpa 13, lies within the southern half of sections 22 and 23, T20N, R20W, UM.

The commission said that amending CO 274 to include section 22 and the northern half of section 27 was appropriate because since the issuance of that order, drilling of the Walakpa 13 has revealed that boundaries of the gas pool are greater than originally believed. CO 274 defines and governs production from the Walakpa gas pool, some 15 miles south-southwest of Barrow.

—Kristen Nelson