Drilling and Production Testing the Methane Hydrate Resource Potential Associated with the Barrow Gas Fields

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: McRae, Steve, Walsh, Thomas, Dunn, Michael, Cook, Michael
• Other Authors: United States. Department of Energy.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Borough Of North Slope 2010
• Subjects: Data Analysis; Natural Gas Fields; Dissociation; Monitoring; Exploratory Wells; Material Balance; Gas Hydrates; Hydrates; Drilling; Temperature Surveys; Construction; Stability; Activity Levels; Resource Potential; Procurement; 03 Natural Gas; Technology Transfer; Monitors; Personnel; Testing; Barrow; Methane hydrate; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/1013343; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc845925/

In November of 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the North Slope Borough (NSB) committed funding to develop a drilling plan to test the presence of hydrates in the producing formation of at least one of the Barrow Gas Fields, and to develop a production surveillance plan to monitor the behavior of hydrates as dissociation occurs. This drilling and surveillance plan was supported by earlier studies in Phase 1 of the project, including hydrate stability zone modeling, material balance modeling, and full-field history-matched reservoir simulation, all of which support the presence of methane hydrate in association with the Barrow Gas Fields. This Phase 2 of the project, conducted over the past twelve months focused on selecting an optimal location for a hydrate test well; design of a logistics, drilling, completion and testing plan; and estimating costs for the activities. As originally proposed, the project was anticipated to benefit from industry activity in northwest Alaska, with opportunities to share equipment, personnel, services and mobilization and demobilization costs with one of the then-active exploration operators. The activity level dropped off, and this benefit evaporated, although plans for drilling of development wells in the BGF's matured, offering significant synergies and cost savings over a remote stand-alone drilling project. An optimal well location was chosen at the East Barrow No.18 well pad, and a vertical pilot/monitoring well and horizontal production test/surveillance well were engineered for drilling from this location. Both wells were designed with Distributed Temperature Survey (DTS) apparatus for monitoring of the hydrate-free gas interface. Once project scope was developed, a procurement process was implemented to engage the necessary service and equipment providers, and finalize project cost estimates. Based on cost proposals from vendors, total project estimated cost is $17.88 million dollars, inclusive of design work, permitting, barging, ice road/pad construction, drilling, completion, tie-in, long-term production testing and surveillance, data analysis and technology transfer. The PRA project team and North Slope have recommended moving forward to the execution phase of this project.