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COPYRIGHT 2008 Hart Publications, Inc.
Locked in darkness during excruciatingly cold and seemingly interminable winter months, lightly populated by the hardiest members of the human race, Alaska's North Slope offers both wonderful promises and breathtaking challenges.Oil began to flow from the supergiant North Slope fields in 1977, and rates peaked at 2.2 million barrels per day in 1988. Today, the slope's tremendous fields make some 730,000 barrels a day. Although the production decline is steep, it belies the remaining potential. The North Slope is still an immature province, and most wells have not strayed far from a narrow trend centered on the Barrow Arch. Three of the world's top multinational corporations currently dominate production: BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. Bit by bit, other firms are breaking into this slice of the world, drawn by multi-million-barrel potential in a province anchored by world-scale infrastructure. The neophytes are entering a realm of extremes: polar weather, fragile environments and bruising state politics. They must work efficiently and safely within a ponderous regulatory framework crafted to deal with the continent's premier fields. North Slope work is arduous on many levels, but the potential payoff can be grand. A new fieldThe biggest event on the slope this year is the start-up of Oooguruk Field by independent Pioneer Natural Resources Co. The Dallas-based company is bringing the field onstream just five years after its discovery. That's lightning-fast speed for a seasoned slope operator, much less a newcomer.It bought a 70% interest in the Northwest Kuparuk exploration prospect from private Denver-based generator Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc. in 2002. Pioneer took on the project in the best tradition of independents--it immediately tested the concept. During the 2002-03 winter drilling season, it built three ice islands just offshore the great delta of the Colville River in Beaufort Sea state waters. It drilled #1 Ivik, #1 Natchiq and #1 Oooguruk. It discovered a large stratigraphic trap. High-quality Cretaceous Kuparuk C sands were the main objective, but that interval was thin. Happily, two of its wells encountered thick oil-laden sands in deeper Jurassic. The accumulation was sizeable, but not ideal. The Upper Ellesmerian sands did not achieve Kuparuk reservoir qualities, and oil gravities were in 20� to 23�. Pioneer's find contained approximately 300 million barrels of oil in place, and the company's challenge was transformed from exploration to engineering."I consider Oooguruk a...
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