Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 The objective of this project was to evaluate the economic feasibility of producing the upper C sand of the Prudhoe Bay Unit L Pad gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir. The analysis is based on numerical modelling of production through depre...

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Main Author: Nollner, Stephanie P.
Other Authors: Dandekar, Abhijit, Patil, Shirish, Ning, Samson, Khataniar, Santanu
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8854
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spelling ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/8854 2023-05-15T13:09:05+02:00 Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes Nollner, Stephanie P. Dandekar, Abhijit Patil, Shirish Ning, Samson Khataniar, Santanu 2015 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8854 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8854 Shale gas reservoirs Economic aspects Alaska North Slope Gas reservoirs Natural gas Hydrates Master's Project ms 2015 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:08Z Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 The objective of this project was to evaluate the economic feasibility of producing the upper C sand of the Prudhoe Bay Unit L Pad gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir. The analysis is based on numerical modelling of production through depressurization completed in CM G STARS by a fellow UAF graduate student, Jennifer Blake, (2015). A staged field development plan was proposed, and the associated capital and operating costs were estimated using Siemens's Oil and Gas Manager planning software and costing database. An economic assessment was completed, incorporating the most common royalties, the current taxes laws applicable to conventional gas development, and most recent tariff estimates. The degree of vertical heterogeneity, initial average hydrate saturation, well spacing and well type had a significant impact on the regional gas production profiles in terms of cumulative volume produced, and more importantly, the expediency of gas production. The volume that is economically recoverable is highly dependent on how the field is developed. A field that has higher vertical heterogeneity and corresponding lower average initial hydrate saturation is most economically produced using horizontal wells at 160 acre spacing; the acceleration of gas production outweighs the increased drilling costs associated with the longer wells and tighter well spacing. The choice of development scenario does not impact the project economics significantly given a field that has lower vertical heterogeneity; however, development using horizontal wells at 320 acre spacing is marginally more economic than the alternatives. Assuming a Minimum Attractive Rate of Return of 20%, the minimum gas price that would allow economic production of ANS gas hydrates was found to be $29.83 per million British thermal units; this value is contingent on the reservoir having high average initial hydrate saturation and being developed with horizontal wells at 320 acre spacing. A slightly higher gas ... Other/Unknown Material Alaska North Slope north slope Prudhoe Bay Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks
institution Open Polar
collection University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA
op_collection_id ftunivalaska
language English
topic Shale gas reservoirs
Economic aspects
Alaska
North Slope
Gas reservoirs
Natural gas
Hydrates
spellingShingle Shale gas reservoirs
Economic aspects
Alaska
North Slope
Gas reservoirs
Natural gas
Hydrates
Nollner, Stephanie P.
Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
topic_facet Shale gas reservoirs
Economic aspects
Alaska
North Slope
Gas reservoirs
Natural gas
Hydrates
description Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015 The objective of this project was to evaluate the economic feasibility of producing the upper C sand of the Prudhoe Bay Unit L Pad gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir. The analysis is based on numerical modelling of production through depressurization completed in CM G STARS by a fellow UAF graduate student, Jennifer Blake, (2015). A staged field development plan was proposed, and the associated capital and operating costs were estimated using Siemens's Oil and Gas Manager planning software and costing database. An economic assessment was completed, incorporating the most common royalties, the current taxes laws applicable to conventional gas development, and most recent tariff estimates. The degree of vertical heterogeneity, initial average hydrate saturation, well spacing and well type had a significant impact on the regional gas production profiles in terms of cumulative volume produced, and more importantly, the expediency of gas production. The volume that is economically recoverable is highly dependent on how the field is developed. A field that has higher vertical heterogeneity and corresponding lower average initial hydrate saturation is most economically produced using horizontal wells at 160 acre spacing; the acceleration of gas production outweighs the increased drilling costs associated with the longer wells and tighter well spacing. The choice of development scenario does not impact the project economics significantly given a field that has lower vertical heterogeneity; however, development using horizontal wells at 320 acre spacing is marginally more economic than the alternatives. Assuming a Minimum Attractive Rate of Return of 20%, the minimum gas price that would allow economic production of ANS gas hydrates was found to be $29.83 per million British thermal units; this value is contingent on the reservoir having high average initial hydrate saturation and being developed with horizontal wells at 320 acre spacing. A slightly higher gas ...
author2 Dandekar, Abhijit
Patil, Shirish
Ning, Samson
Khataniar, Santanu
format Other/Unknown Material
author Nollner, Stephanie P.
author_facet Nollner, Stephanie P.
author_sort Nollner, Stephanie P.
title Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
title_short Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
title_full Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
title_fullStr Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
title_full_unstemmed Economic assessment of Alaska North Slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
title_sort economic assessment of alaska north slope hydrate-bearing reservoir regional production development schemes
publishDate 2015
url http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8854
geographic Fairbanks
geographic_facet Fairbanks
genre Alaska North Slope
north slope
Prudhoe Bay
Alaska
genre_facet Alaska North Slope
north slope
Prudhoe Bay
Alaska
op_relation http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8854
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