Alaska Well Sets Onshore Record

[thackney]

Alaska Well Sets Onshore Record
https://www.rigzone.com/news/alaska_well_sets_onshore_record-30-aug-2019-159691-article/

A supermajor has set an onshore North American drilling record for longest extended-reach well, Houston-based technology startup Corva reported Friday.

The undisclosed international oil and gas producer drilled a 32,468-foot (9,896-meter) well in July in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska’s North Slope, according to Corva, whose real-time drilling and completion analytics technology was used during the operation.

Extreme torque and pressure conditions create complex challenges to drilling long lateral wellbores. Corva noted the North Slope operator used real-time analytics to monitor and respond to hazardous conditions while drilling and tripping pipe – the critical process of removing and replacing the entire drill string.

Although longer extended-reach horizontal wells maximize wellbore distance through a producing pay zone and enhance production and economic return, long horizontal well sections create extreme torque and drag conditions, Corva explained in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. Such conditions strain a drilling rig’s operational limits and can lead to a drill string break or other catastrophic events, the firm stated....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I doubt the supermajor is happy that this service company announced this.

The startup company Corva was likely trumpeting its product, but will get a severe private rebuke by the supermajor.

If I am not mistaken, the only supermajors that operate within the NPR are ENI, Chevron, Exxon and maybe Shell.

If this well was drilled by Exxon, you can bet Corva will be sued for breaching confidentiality agreements.

[thackney]

I doubt the supermajor is happy that this service company announced this.

The startup company Corva was likely trumpeting its product, but will get a severe private rebuke by the supermajor.

If I am not mistaken, the only supermajors that operate within the NPR are ENI, Chevron, Exxon and maybe Shell.

If this well was drilled by Exxon, you can bet Corva will be sued for breaching confidentiality agreements.

ConocoPhillips is the most active player in the NPRA.  Exxon has ownership percentages but no operations.

I spent 4 years in Alaska.  I was the lead electrical engineer for the design team of the first production pad in the NPRA for ConocoPhillips.  Veco was the design/engineering company, now bought out by CH2MHill.

http://www.conocophillips.com/operations/alaska/

https://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Documents/Maps/ActivityMaps/NorthSlope/NorthSlopeOilAndGasActivityMap-201704.pdf

[IsailedawayfromFR]

ConocoPhillips is the most active player in the NPRA.  Exxon has ownership percentages but no operations.

I spent 4 years in Alaska.  I was the lead electrical engineer for the design team of the first production pad in the NPRA for ConocoPhillips.  Veco was the design/engineering company, now bought out by CH2MHill.

http://www.conocophillips.com/operations/alaska/

https://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Documents/Maps/ActivityMaps/NorthSlope/NorthSlopeOilAndGasActivityMap-201704.pdf

ConocoPhillips has never been recognized as a supermajor.

[thackney]

ConocoPhillips has never been recognized as a supermajor.

Never?  Maybe by some but not all.

https://www.financial-dictionary.info/terms/big-oil-super-majors/

[thackney]

ConocoPhillips has never been recognized as a supermajor.

A little more searching makes me fairly sure this had to be ConocoPhillips.

4 wells were permitted in NPRA over this summer.  All 4 were in the Tinmiaq lease, for the Willow prospect, located in the Bear Tooth Unit operated by ConocoPhillips.

https://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Documents/Maps/ActivityMaps/NorthSlope/2019-05_ActivityMap_NorthSlope.pdf

https://static.conocophillips.com/files/resources/willow-fact-sheet-final.pdf

http://www.drillingedge.com/alaska/harrison-bay-quadrangle/leases/tinmiaq/aa00081808

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Talking semantics now.

I always considered the 7 sisters as the supermajor oil companies (Exxon, Mobil, Gulf, Chevron, Texaco, BP and Shell).  Three are now defunct as they were absorbed into Exxon(Mobil) or Chevron(Gulf, Texaco).  There are a couple of other non-government companies I consider as supermajor like Total and ENI.

Majors are ones like Amoco and Arco(both bought by BP), Conoco and Phillips (which have merged).  Since the downstream of ConocoPhillips has spun off, the combined company is not much bigger than either company pre-merger.

A source I read says about CP:

It is the world's largest independent pure-play exploration and production company

I would not think that is what I would call a 'supermajor' as its revenue in 2018 was only $38 bn.  Compare to the big boys.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

A little more searching makes me fairly sure this had to be ConocoPhillips.

4 wells were permitted in NPRA over this summer.  All 4 were in the Tinmiaq lease, for the Willow prospect, located in the Bear Tooth Unit operated by ConocoPhillips.

https://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Documents/Maps/ActivityMaps/NorthSlope/2019-05_ActivityMap_NorthSlope.pdf

https://static.conocophillips.com/files/resources/willow-fact-sheet-final.pdf

http://www.drillingedge.com/alaska/harrison-bay-quadrangle/leases/tinmiaq/aa00081808

Glad to see CP making headway with the long laterals.  It seemed resistive to do so when I worked the Williston.

Exxon is the best at very long wells, both offshore at Sakhalin and California. 

Sakhalin has several wells exceeding 40,000' with the longest drilled to 49,500'.  Several of these wells were drilled from an onshore location to develop an offshore field to save the expensive platform costs in these frigid waters.



And the California Sacate well was drilled to 37,165 ft as an exploratory well from an existing platform in order to test a structure in face of a moratorium of other than platform drilling offshore California.