|
The Explorers 2020: Eni trying again at Nikaitchuq North in 2022
Second wildcat well postponed for two years; plans for Eni’s undeveloped acreage on eastern North Slope remain confidential Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Eni US Operating Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Italian multinational Eni S.p.A., will likely spud its second Nikaitchuq North extended reach exploration well in second quarter 2022. The Alaska Beaufort Sea prospect is in a 13-lease federal OCS unit, Harrison Bay block 6423, which is approximately 6 miles from the Spy Island Drill site in the state Nikaitchuq unit (see map in pdf version of this story).
In Eni’s 13th plan of development for the Nikaitchuq unit the major told Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas that it will do facility upgrades to support the NN-02 well, including a new six-slot well containment shelter and associated well conductors. The work will be done during the 13th POD period from Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021.
The original plan for NN-01, the first Nikaitchuq North wildcat, envisaged the potential drilling of a sidetrack well following completion of the main well. Eni no longer plans to finish drilling NN-01 or sidetrack it; rather it will try again with a new well.
Similar to the first ultra-extended reach well, NN-02 will be an S-shape wellbore into the target reservoir and drilled from Spy Island Drill site, or SID, which is a man-made gravel island in shallow state waters off Oliktok Point where Nikaitchuq’s onshore production and processing facilities are located.
With NN-02 Eni is again striving to break all Alaska records for extended reach drilling to reach a measured depth of 34,000-35,000 feet.
Short of its target The NN-01 well was first spud at SID on Dec. 25, 2017, but drilling did not get underway until February 2018 because of what Eni said were “unforeseen impacts to the drilling schedule.”
The well was drilled to a measured depth of 30,010 feet and suspended in August 2018, but not fully logged as it was short of its target which seismic showed to be at approximately 34,150 feet. NN-01 drilling was done with Doyon Rig 15, which had been specially modified for the well.
Drilling operations resumed in mid-January 2019, but due to the “drilling complications” at NN-01 that had plagued it from the start, Eni said it suspended the well in April of that year.
Two-year drilling delay In its 13th POD Eni said it planned to resume drilling operations by spudding a new well, NN-02, in second quarter 2020, aiming to reach target depth by third quarter 2020. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Eni’s NN-02 well would be “targeting the same seismic anomaly” as the first well.
However; Shell, Eni’s working interest partner in the federal leases where the downhole target is located, “elected to go non-consent in the drilling of NN-02 well therefore causing Eni to temporarily postpone drilling plans,” Eni told the agency.
As a result of its partner’s decision not to participate in NN-02, Eni applied for and received from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement a suspension of operations for “an additional 2-year period, or until April 2022.”
Geological target speculation The seismic anomaly from 3-D over Nikaitchuq North was not identified by Eni in the public portion of the plans it filed with the division or with BOEM, but it left hints elsewhere; specifically in the Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan application that appeared to be based on tapping the Jurassic Alpine sands, which would certainly qualify as an anomaly in the area.
Whatever the case, the 25,957 barrels per day in the contingency plan application could not be referring to the heavy Schrader Bluff oil produced from the Nikaitchuq unit that is known to extend a long way north because that oil can’t flow unassisted.
Also, the measured depth and angle of the well suggest one of the Jurassic sands.
A previous Nikaitchuq unit operator, Kerr-McGee and partner Armstrong, talked about the possibility of testing the Jurassic Nuiqsut sandstone and the Triassic Sag River sandstone to the north.
Spare processing capacity One of the reasons Eni gave for stepping out north of the Nikaitchuq unit to test the Nikaitchuq North prospect was it wanted new oil to take advantage of significant spare capacity in the standalone Nikaitchuq unit production facility, which can currently handle 40,000 barrels per day and can easily be expanded to 50,000 bpd, according to Eni Alaska Vice President Whitney Grande.
Production from Nikaitchuq averaged 18,144 bpd in May 2020.
Exploring farther east While Eni’s Nikaitchuq and Oooguruk developments are west of the BP-operated Prudhoe Bay unit, the 350,000 undeveloped acres Eni purchased from Caelus in August 2018 are on the eastern North Slope between Prudhoe and ExxonMobil’s Point Thomson unit. The acquisition was in line with Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi’s May 2018 declaration at a 2018-21 strategy meeting that Eni was doing well in Alaska and had plans for increased investment in the state.
At the time of the purchase, Eni said it planned to “apply its business model and experience,” involving “fast-track exploration” and “a short time to market” for the “potential new discoveries.”
Containing 124 state leases in two blocks, the acreage is relatively unexplored and close to existing infrastructure and to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. It is approximately 20 miles southeast of Deadhorse, which is an unincorporated community consisting mainly of facilities for oilfield workers and firms that have contracts with the nearby oil fields, including Prudhoe. Deadhorse is accessible via the Dalton Highway and the Deadhorse Airport.
Multiple play types Shortly after acquiring the eastern North Slope leases in 2015, Caelus acquired 175 square miles of new 3-D seismic data and reprocessed another 275 square miles of existing 3-D to image prospects in the acreage.
“Adjacent infrastructure with available capacity reduces threshold volumes required for developing discoveries in the sub-100 MMBO recoverable range,” Caelus said. “Multiple play types within proven stratigraphic horizons provide significant upside potential in previously poorly-imaged structural trends and/or subtle stratigraphic traps.”
Surrounding legacy wells “confirm deeper petroleum system elements and de-risked shallower Brookian reservoirs and hydrocarbon charge and phase within the area,” Caelus said, much of which was mostly ignored in drilling until Armstrong and Repsol discovered big oil finds in the shallow Brookian Nanushuk at Pikka and Horseshoe west of the central North Slope.
Armstrong and Oil Search also have a huge block of undeveloped acreage near Eni’s 350,000 acres.
| 