BP accepts AOGCC fine for Prudhoe well

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said in an Oct. 25 order that BP Exploration (Alaska) is not contesting a proposed enforcement action for failure to complete a mechanical integrity test on Prudhoe Bay unit H-03 well, an injection well. The commission said it proposed a $24,500 civil fine and BP had committed to paying the fine.

AOGCC said a violation occurred every day after May 20, 2014, that BP injected into the H-03 well without completing a mechanical integrity test, specifically June 17 to July 15 of 2016. The commission said the $24,500 fine was $10,000 for the initial violation - failure to perform the required mechanical integrity test on the injection well - and $500 for each day of injecting in the well without compliance with the testing requirement.

AOGCC last witnessed a mechanical integrity test on May 20, 2010. A test was required on or before May 20, 2014, but without the test the well was placed on injection for 29 days.

BP notified the commission July 20, 2016, that the well had been returned to injection on June 17 of that year. When the commission investigated, BP provided data that injection occurred from June 17 to July 15 of 2016, for 29 days, before the company shut in the well.

The commission said the penalty was reduced due to BP’s “general history of satisfactory compliance and practices, an aquifer exemption for the PBU, the lack of actual or potential threat to public health or the environment,” and the company’s “immediate shut-in of H-03 and notification to AOGCC once BPXA determined the well was out of compliance.”

AOGCC said BP “committed by email dated July 19, 2017 to an increased level of oversight and review of established training and process protocols for employees and contractors governing dewatering injection operations,” and the commission said it found BP’s “renewed training and process protocols” satisfactory to help prevent further violations of requirements for mechanical integrity tests.