On May 18, ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. achieved first oil at its North Slope Fiord West Kuparuk satellite in the Alpine field of the Colville River unit from a record-setting horizontal well, CD2-310, drilled by Doyon 26, an extended reach drilling rig nicknamed the “Beast” because of its immense size.
On May 20 the well’s flowrate was “being progressively increased and is currently producing close to 10,000 barrels of oil per day, exceeding expectations,” CPAI said.
Initially, CPAI hoped to produce some 20,000 barrels of oil per day from Fiord West at its peak.
The company said the injector well will be “pre-produced for 5-6 months prior to being converted to permanent injection service.” (CD2-310 was initially planned to be a development well, but its status was recently changed by CPAI to that of an injector.)
The largest mobile land rig in North America, Rig 26 drilled CD2-310 to a total measured depth of 35,526 feet, on April 11, making it the longest North American land based well.
Doyon 26 is a technologically advanced rig, capable of drilling in excess of 40,000 feet, which substantially extends the reach from a single pad.
That means the rig will be able to develop 154 square miles of reservoir from a 14-acre drilling pad versus 55 square miles using today’s conventional rigs. CD2-310 is the first well drilled by the rig.
The Fiord West Kuparuk development “opens a new era we call ‘growth without gravel’ where we can use extended reach technology to access 60% more acreage from a single pad, dramatically reducing our footprint and enabling us to safely produce from environmentally sensitive areas,” CPAI President Erec Isaacson said May 20.
Technology has been at the heart of ConocoPhillips Alaska’s greening of its oil fields on the North Slope.
“We are always seeking new and better ways to responsibly deliver Alaska’s energy potential,” Isaacson wrote in a recent editorial.
“Extended reach technology has been a game changer for ConocoPhillips,” said Vincent Lelarge, vice president, Alaska Asset Development. “It’s how we are able to responsibility develop fields like Fiord West Kuparuk with minimal footprint on the tundra and the surrounding environment.”
Lelarge said CPAI has worked collaboratively on the Doyon 26 rig since 2011 when use of an extended reach drilling rig was being evaluated. From front-end engineering and design studies to ConocoPhillips Canada colleagues collaborating with Doyon Drilling during construction, the rig arrived on the North Slope of Alaska in 2020.
Taking a summer break
CPAI said data from the Fiord West Kuparuk well will aid in optimizing the design of the next well, which jives with what the company told state and federal officials in a May 18 status update of an April 11 annual update of the 24th Colville River unit plan of development.
CPAI said given the “significant challenges seen” in the CD2-310 well, the company’s “drilling plans for 2022 had been updated to include a drilling break” for Doyon 26 this summer in order to “improve ERD drilling operations.”
Rig 26 started drilling the Fiord West Kuparuk CD2-310 well in second quarter 2021. It was supposed to be finished in first quarter 2022. Petroleum News sources say the rig is currently undergoing annual maintenance but remains under contract to CPAI.
“This break in the ERD program,” CPAI said in its May 18 update, “will be used to incorporate the lessons learned from CD2-310 execution and make required engineering changes to the ERD well designs going forward.”
Deviations from 23rd plan
On March 16, 2021, CPAI submitted the 23rd annual status update to the Colville River unit plan of development, or POD. It identified the possibility of up to four Fiord West Kuparuk wells being drilled during the 2021-Q1 2022 POD period by Doyon 26.
This big ERD rig was used in Q2 2021 to drill the initial well, CD2-310, but as we now know, it took longer to drill than expected.
Thus, the remaining Fiord West Kuparuk ERD wells premised in the previous 23rd POD are now considered opportunity wells for the 24th POD period.
Furthermore, in the 23rd POD, a Narwhal injector, the CD4-597, to complete the first pattern was planned for early 2022. That well was not drilled during the 23rd POD period. However, as of May 2, 2022, Doyon Rig 142 was preparing to drill CD4-597 as part of the 24th POD.
Doyon Rig 142
On May 2, Doyon 142 completed operations on WD-03 on CD1 pad. The rig was moved from CD1 to the CD4 pad.
Following the CD4-597 well, Doyon 142 “may move back from the CD4 pad to the CD1 pad to drill the WD-04 well (replacement for the WD-03 well) or it may drill another opportunity well,” CPAI said.
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the waste disposal well, WD-03, which was being drilled when a gas release occurred in early March at CD1, has been “cemented to surface and a dry hole tree” installed on May 2.
AOGCC said the well was considered suspended “pending cutoff at proper depth below original tundra level and installation of the required abandonment marker plate.”
