Following successful testing of oil and gas production from its Dubhe-1 well, Pantheon Resources PLC anticipates moving forward with the development of the company's Ahpun field, south of Deadhorse on the North Slope, Pantheon CEO Max Easley told Petroleum News on Oct. 16. Easley said that the location of the oil and gas discovery, close to the North Slope Haul Road and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, will render the development very cost effective and convenient.
Also, the proximity to a potential future gas pipeline from the North Slope could open up the potential for the export of natural gas from the field.
As previously reported by Petroleum News, in its recent testing of the Dubhe-1 well Pantheon successfully completed 25 fracture stimulation stages. The well was drilled to a depth of 15,800 feet, with a 5,200-foot lateral drilled horizontally along the middle of the main Ahpun reservoir, Easley said.
"The next step for us, of course, is to bring the well on production, which will happen here very shortly," he said.
Demonstrate commercial viability
Currently the plan involves demonstrating commercially viable production from the Dubhe-1 well before moving to a final investment decision for the field development.
Pantheon views the well as an appraisal well that will likely be flowed for a period of time for field evaluation purposes before being shut in.
As part of the development Pantheon anticipates the construction of a connection into TAPS close to the field. Meanwhile any oil produced is being trucked to the Milne Point field.
Easley said that the reservoir that the well penetrates is conventional in nature but is relatively tight, thus requiring fracture stimulation of long horizontal wells to enable adequate oil and gas production.
Great Bear Pantheon, operator of the field for Panthron, has to inject a mixture of sand and water for the stimulation.
Water that can be used for this is plentiful close to the development, but the company has had to import millions of pounds of sand from elsewhere, Easley said, noting he would like to see a sustainable Alaska business for mining sand in support of oil production. For the well fracture stimulation Pantheon used a Canadian company with experience of operating in sub-Arctic conditions while also using Alaskan suppliers.
If a gasline is constructed from the North Slope, gas production from the Ahpun field could be delivered into the pipeline. However, the viability of the field development is not dependent on the sale of gas -- if there is no gasline for export of the gas, the gas would be injected back into the field, Easley said.
On the other hand, Pantheon has a precedent agreement with the State of Alaska to likely be the first shipper of gas into the gasline, Easley said.
Well pads required
The Aphun field is situated to the west of the Haul Road. Field development will involve the construction of a daisy chain of pads extending west from the current pad, Easley said. Given the wet nature of the land, the US Army Corps of Engineers will need to review the development plans. However, with relatively small well pads being required, there do not appear to be any obstacles to the project, Easley said.
The concept is to first drill several wells from a pad immediately west of the current pad, before extending the access road west to another pad, and so on. Ultimately, Pantheon expects to be able to develop a second field that the company has discovered, the Kodiak field, to the west of the Aphun field.
The Kodiak field reservoir is deeper than the Aphun reservoir, and is situated below the Aphun reservoir, where the two fields overlap.
New development situation
Easley also said that these fields represent a completely new development situation with a different set of reservoirs from the traditional development fairway involving the Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk River and Alpine fields.
"It's a completely different set of reservoirs, a completely different development concept and it's really exciting to have a viable independent come in and do something for the benefit of the state," Easley said.
Pantheon has told Petroleum News that the reservoirs are located in the Middle Schrader Bluff formation.
Pantheon's development concept is very simple, with a requirement for relatively inexpensive infrastructure directly above the field and without the need for giant sea-lift barges to transport equipment to the North Slope, Easley said.
This is happening in a situation where "there's a renaissance going on in Alaska for resource extraction right now, from the support from the state government as well as the federal government," he said.
