ConocoPhillips Devils Paw Prospect, Chukchi Sea: A Beaufortian Play Analogous to the Kuparuk River Field, North Slope Alaska

• Main Authors: Gregory C. Wilson, Chris Seaman
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Chukchi Sea; Chukchi; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.665.88; http://alaskageology.org/documents/14/March+2014+Newsletter.pdf

The Devils Paw prospect is a large four-way dip closure at the Beaufortian primary objective in the Lower Cretaceous, with nearly 1000 feet of structural relief covering approximately 275,000 acres. Leases over the prospect were obtained in 2008 by competitive bid in Sale 193. The structure was penetrated by the Shell Klondike 1 well in 1989 on its way to a deeper objective, encountering a thin hydrocarbon-charged reservoir in the Lower Cretaceous at a position high on paleo-structure. ConocoPhillips and co-owners Statoil and OOGC have selected drill locations interpreted to be more favorable to thick Lower Cretaceous reservoir development, but drilling plans are currently on hold. Phanerozoic stratigraphy in the Chukchi Sea includes Ellesmerian, Beaufortian, and Brookian mega-sequences correlative to that of Alaska’s North Slope. Hydrocarbon-charged reservoir facies within the Beaufortian and Brookian mega-sequences, and source facies within the Ellesmerian mega-sequence, were encountered during the drilling of the five wells in the Chukchi Sea from 1989- 1991. (continued) AGS Luncheon