On June 10, Bill Armstrong told Petroleum News that 500 to 800 million barrels of recoverable oil is his estimate for the Sockeye discovery on the Lagniappe block on Alaska- s eastern North Slope.
On April 24, APA Corp. and its partners Lagniappe Alaska LLC, an Armstrong company, and Oil Search (Alaska) LLC, a subsidiary of Santos Ltd., announced the results of a successful flow test of the Sockeye-2 exploration well.
APA- s Apache holds a 50% working interest, operator Lagniappe and partner Santos each hold 25% working interests in the 325,411-acre exploratory Lagniappe block which is located on state of Alaska lands.
"This is very exciting for us, our partners and for the state of Alaska," Armstrong said in a June 10 text to PN.
"This discovery also confirms our geological models and exploration methodology." he said."There is so much more to do in Lagniappe."
No fracking
The Sockeye-2 well, located approximately 10 miles from the Badami oil field and its open access pipeline, was successfully drilled to a depth of approximately 10,500 feet and encountered a high-quality Paleocene-aged clastic reservoir with an average porosity of 20%.
The vertical Sockeye-2 was completed in a single 25-foot interval at approximately 9,200 feet true vertical depth.
On April 24 Armstrong said the well was "very old school in its performance, in that there was no stimulation or fracking required. It was completely natural."
During the 12-day production test, the well averaged 2,700 barrels of oil per day in the final flow period, without artificial lift.
The results of the flow test indicate significantly higher reservoir quality compared to similar topset discoveries to the west.
Further appraisal drilling will determine the ultimate size of the discovery, but the flow test demonstrates the exceptional productivity of this shallow marine reservoir, APA said in its April 24 press release.
At that time Armstrong said the discovery "significantly extends the prolific Brookian topset play first established with our Pikka discovery in 2013. We have identified analogous anomalies to investigate following on this success.
"We will evaluate the data from the Sockeye-2 well to determine the next steps in our Alaska program," John J. Christmann, APA Corp. CEO, said April 24.
The Sockeye-2 well was "based off of reprocessed 3D seismic. It showed us the same seismic signature that we recognized 94 miles to the west when we discovered the Pikka field. Our new wildcat came in as mapped," Armstrong said.
"We are especially encouraged by the great reservoir rock. Our average permeability is more than 10 times that of Willow, and five times the permeability of the Pikka and Alpine fields," Armstrong said.
This new reservoir "will be an ideal flood candidate for secondary recovery. The discovery opens up a new portion of the North Slope. It- s a 94-mile eastward extension of the Brookian topset play. That sort of expansion to one of the world's best oil plays is a really big deal," Armstrong said.
--KAY CASHMAN
