Alaska North Slope 2018 Hydrate 01 Stratigraphic Test Well
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are leading an effort to conduct an extended gas hydrate production test in northern Alaska.
The proposed production test required the drilling of an initial stratigraphic test well (STW) to confirm the geologic conditions of the proposed test site. This well was completed in December 2018. With the success of the STW, plans are proceeding to drill a geologic data well and a production test well. Drilling plans for the STW were advanced in late 2018 when BP Exploration Alaska proposed a synergy between Prudhoe Bay Unit (PBU) and NETL/JOGMEC/USGS interests in which the gas hydrate STW could be drilled as part of the standard rig “warm-up” activities prior to the start of the PBU 2019 drilling season. The PBU Hydrate-01 was spud on December 10, 2018. Downhole data acquisition was completed on December 25, 2018 and the rig was released on January 1, 2019. The STW was drilled in two parts. The surface hole was drilled to a depth of 2248 ft (MD, measured depth) and cased, and the “main hole section” was drilled to a depth of 3558 ft (MD) and also cased. A thermally chilled mineral-oil-based mud was used to maintain hole stability and quality of the borehole acquired data. The primary well data were acquired using a suite of Schlumberger logging-while-drilling tools. To gather grain size and other data needed to inform the design of the production test well, sidewall pressure cores were collected using Halliburton’s CoreVault tool. In addition to confirming the geologic conditions at the test site, the Hydrate-01 well was designed to serve as a monitoring well during future field operations. Therefore, two sets of fiber-optic cables, each including bundled Distributed Acoustic Sensors (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS), were strapped to the outside of the well casing and cemented in place. In March 2019, the project team partnered with SAExploration to acquire 3D DAS Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) data in the Hydrate-01 well, which was the largest 3D DAS-VSP ever conducted. Since the December 2018 completion of the STW, several borehole temperature surveys have been acquired with the DTS deployed in the Hydrate-01 well.
Read the full reports linked below:
Press Release:
Test Well Confirms Two Gas Hydrate Reservoirs in Alaska North Slope
Fire-in-the-Ice Newsletter:
Viable Long-Term Gas Hydrate Testing Site Confirmed on the Alaska North Slope
