Unlocking the potential of the Schrader Bluff Formation, North Slope Alaska

Abstract

The Milne Point Unit, North Slope Alaska, contains 2X10 9 BBL STOOIP, in the Late Cretaceous Schrader Bluff Formation. This resource is part of a larger viscous oil accumulation in excess of 26X10 9 BBL STOOIP. Exploitation of the Schrader Bluff commenced in 1991 with an initial 22 well development. Resulting capital and operating costs gave the basis for the larger planned development. These cost projections, coupled with low flow rates--350 BBL oil per day (BOPD)--rendered the project uneconomic and drilling ceased in 1992. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (BPXA) acquired Milne Point in 1994 and laid plans to develop the Schrader Bluff and two deeper reservoirs. Most of the current production comes from two deeper reservoirs, however, work on the problematic Schrader Bluff has continued. Learning through innovative drilling and completion programmes, plus additional technological and contractual innovations, are considered the keys to unlocking the value of this vast viscous oil resource.

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of A Late Cretaceous, Muddy, River-Dominated Polar Deltaic System: Schrader Bluff–Prince Creek Formation Transition, Shivugak Bluffs, North Slope of Alaska, U.S.A.

“…17). Shivugak Bluffs is an ideal outcrop analog for heavy-to viscous-oil reservoirs found nearby on the North Slope such as the Orion and Polaris Oil pools, Milne Point, and Nikaitchuq (Croft et al 1999; Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission 2010) because they contain complex vertical and lateral facies relationships and sandbody geometries in a marine-to-continental transitional system, similar to those documented in younger shallow reservoirs nearby (Houseknecht and Bird 2005). The depositional model presented here can also serve as a predictive model for other, low-net-to-gross reservoirs in the world that formed on muddy deltaic shorelines.…”

“…1A; Croft et al 1999;Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission 2010). Although several recent studies have focused on the sedimentology of the Maastrichtian portion of the Prince Creek Formation (Flaig et al 2011(Flaig et al , 2014, few North Slope studies have described the Schrader Bluff Formation (e.g., Mull et al 2003;Phillips 2003;Flores et al 2007;LePain et al 2008).…”