In a June 25 proposal, Hilcorp North Slope told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas it may drill as many as four new wells in the Greater Point McIntyre Area at Prudhoe Bay in the 2021 plan of development period, from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2022.
Hilcorp took over as operator at Prudhoe July 1 of last year, after closing June 30 on the purchase of Standard Oil Co.’s stock in BP Exploration Alaska. BPXA had submitted the GPMA 2020 POD in late June of 2020.
PAs at Greater Point McIntyre
The Greater Point McIntyre Area at Prudhoe includes several participating areas, a designation for areas where production occurs.
Development at the Niakuk reservoir began in 1994 from the Niakuk PA; West Niakuk PA production began in 1995; in 2007 the two PAs were combined into the Combined Niakuk PA. Waterflood began in 1995 and continues.
The Lisburne field was discovered in 1968 at the Prudhoe Bay State No. 1; development drilling began in 1985 along with long-term testing of wells in the pilot waterflood area. The field came online in late 1986, ramping up production in 1987 to 45,000 barrels per day. The Lisburne PA was formed in 1986. Lisburne gas cap water injection began as a pilot in 2008 and continues. Since the end of 1986 production is primarily processed at the Lisburne Production Center.
North Prudhoe Bay is a small field north of the Prudhoe Bay field and south of the Point McIntyre field. The North Prudhoe Bay PA, formed in 1995, produces from the Sag River and Ivishak formations.
The Point McIntyre PA was formed in 1993 with reservoirs at Point McIntyre and Stump Island and has been developed from two drill sites, PM1 and PM2.
The Raven PA was formed in late 2007 with reservoirs in the Sag River formation and the Ivishak sandstone member of the Sadlerochit group; production is processed at LPC.
The West Beach PA was formed in early 1993 and production began later that year with water injection from 2000 through 2003. The last production occurred in 2009. “Surface facilities remediation is needed prior to returning the PA to production,” Hilcorp said.
2020 POD
From April 1, 2020, through March 31 of this year, the GPMA PAs produced some 146 billion cubic feet of gas, 9.461 million barrels of oil, 1.362 million barrels of natural gas liquids and some 52 million barrels of water, Hilcorp said. Average oil equivalent production was 29,651 barrels per day (146 bcf of gas; 9,461 bpd of oil and 1,362 bpd of NGL).
A table showing production by PA shows the majority of combined oil, gas and NGL production (barrels of oil equivalent) coming from the Point McIntyre (15,745 bpd) and Lisburne PAs (11,612 bpd), with other PAs trailing far behind: Combined Niakuk 825 bpd and Raven 715 bpd. There was no production during the period from North Prudhoe Bay and West Beach.
There was also oil, NGL and natural gas production from three tract operations (NK-14B, NK-08B and P1-09) totaling 754 bpd.
Hilcorp said that since taking over as operator it has “focused on returning idle wells to service, optimizing production through the existing surface infrastructure, targeting reservoirs that had been under-developed, improving voidage replacement, and improving operational efficiency, which together led to a 2.7% (289 Mbbl) year-on-year increase in overall oil production rate from GPMA from the period April 1, 2019-March 31, 2020 to April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021.”
The company said no new wells were planned for the 2020 POD and it does not anticipate drilling any new wells during the remainder of the 2020 POD.
No workovers were proposed in the 2020 POD and none have been completed, but Hilcorp said it plans to complete as many as four workovers during the remainder of the 2020 POD (which ends Sept. 30), with two workovers in the Lisburne PA, one at the Niakuk PA and one at the Point McIntyre PA.
Two facility expansion projects were completed: L4 pad was reinstated and resumed production at the Lisburne PA, after having been shut-in since 2014, with production of some 1,200 bpd as of June 1; on-pad three-phase piping at Drill Site PM2 at the Point McIntyre PA was re-engineered to reduce vibration, allowing more throughput, with work completed May 27 and production from PM2 expected to increase 2,000-3,000 bpd due to the project.
Hilcorp said it is evaluating two additional major facility projects, the LPC Rich Gas to the Central Gas Facility and the L5 Pipeline Replacement Project, both of which would improve the production capacity of the GMPA PAs.
2021 POD
For the 2021 POD period Hilcorp said it anticipates drilling up to four new wells at the GMPA, with potential candidates including two coil tubing drilling sidetracks within the Lisburne and Point McIntyre PAs. No new wells are planned in the Combined Niakuk, North Prudhoe Bay, Ran or West Beach PAs.
Up to three wells workovers with the Thunderbird 1 workover rig are proposed, with candidates including two rig workovers in the Lisburne PA and one rig workover in the Point McIntyre PA. No well workovers are planned for the Combined Niakuk, North Prudhoe Bay, Raven or West Beach PAs.
Major facility projects may include: LPC Rich Gas to CGF and L5 pipeline replacement.
Long-range activities
Hilcorp said it continues to evaluate future drilling opportunities and potential undeveloped resources, with the following planned during the 2021 POD period:
*Evaluate and execute additional facility expansions;
*Evaluate development potential in Lisburne L4/L5 area;
*Evaluate development potential in Niakuk Kuparuk;
*Evaluate development potential at West Beach and North Prudhoe Bay; and
*Evaluate development potential of existing tract operations - NK-14B, NK-08B and P1-09.
