Alaskan Heavy Oil: First CHOPS at a Vast, Untapped Arctic Resource

Abstract

Abstract Alaska’s North Slope is a world-class petroleum resource basin with two of the largest producing fields in North America, Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River Unit. What is not widely known is the vast resource of heavy oil above these reservoirs. Although comparable in size to these fields, it remains untapped due to the complexity of producing heavy oil in an arctic environment. The keys to commercializing this heavy oil resource are primarily technology and favorable economics. This paper is focused solely on the technology hurdles. Development of heavy oil in the Arctic represents a significant departure from conventional oil developments on the North Slope as well as established heavy oil developments elsewhere in the world. The combination of low well rates, high costs, and arctic conditions require a sustained commitment to developing new approaches for unlocking the resource. To progress this opportunity BP initiated an appraisal program involving resource characterization, production pilots, and development screening. This paper describes early appraisal results from a cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) flowback and multi-zone drill-stem testing to obtain quality reservoir fluid samples.