As Hilcorp Alaska continues to expand production from its North Slope Milne Point unit it is now looking at acreage it holds adjoining the unit and has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas to expand the Milne Point unit by some 13,275 acres.
A map accompanying Hilcorp's Dec. 29 application shows the majority of the expansion area to the north of the existing unit, with one smaller proposed expansion area near the unit's southeast edge.
Hilcorp said in its application that accumulations in the proposed expansion area include the Kuparuk and Schrader Bluff reservoirs, accessible from the Moose, Raven (or R) and F pads. The F Pad is the most northerly of the three, with the R Pad under construction to the southwest of F Pad and the Moose Pad, developed in 2018, southwest of the R and F pads near the western boundary of the unit.
The expansion area includes parts of six leases: ADL 355017, ADL 355018, ADL 355021, ADL 355016, ADL 28232 and ADL 394167.
Hilcorp said three of those, ADL 355017, ADL 355018 and ADL 355021, are net profit share leases.
Hilcorp earlier applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for a smaller expansion to the northwest of the existing Schrader Bluff oil pool as described in AOGCC Conservation Order 477. (See story in Jan. 23 issue of Petroleum News.)
The AOGCC request lists four affected leases, two of which coincide with the six leases in the unit application expansion.
In addition to being a larger expansion, the unit expansion request includes both Kuparuk and Schrader Bluff reservoirs.
Proposed drilling
Hilcorp told the division it proposes to drill 10 wells in the expansion area this year and next, three Kuparuk formation wells -- one from K Pad and two from F Pad -- and seven Schrader Bluff wells, all from R Pad. The company told the division an additional 18 wells targeting Schrader Bluff across two leases, ADL 355018 and ADL 355021, are planned by the end of 2008.
Both of those leases are listed in the Schrader Bluff expansion request to AOGCC.
F Pad and R Pad are in the northern expansion area, with R Pad currently under construction.
K Pad is in the southern expansion area. The most recent work at that pad was approval earlier this year of a Hilcorp proposal to install a 6-inch FlexSteel line inside an existing abandoned 14-inch line from SK Junction to K Pad. The new line will bring high-pressure water to K Pad for injection and production support. That project was approved in January and is expected to be completed by April.
AOGCC production data for January shows K Pad production all coming from the Kuparuk River oil pool.
Previous drilling
Hilcorp listed four wells previously drilled in the northern area of the proposed expansion and said there has been no drilling in the proposed expansion area in the southeast.
Exploration activity in the northern expansion area occurred between 1992 and 2004.
NW Milne 1 was drilled in 1992. Hilcorp said the well "logged oil to the base of the Kuparuk sands."
In 1996, N Milne 1 and N Milne 2 were drilled, with N Milne 1 logging oil to the base of the Kuparuk sands while N Milne 2 found those sands to be wet.
Nikaitchuq 2, drilled in 2004, did not encounter Kuparuk sands, Hilcorp said.
The first three wells found the Schrader Bluff interval to be wet.
The fourth well, Nikaitchuq 2, logged an oil water contact at 4,171 feet true vertical depth, "marking the northern extent of the oil in the Schrader Bluff Oil reservoir in the main fault block of the expansion area," Hilcorp said.
Nikaitchuq 2 was not tested, while the other three primarily targeted the deeper Kuparuk, "with the intent to try to determine the extent of the oil accumulation."
--KRISTEN NELSON
