ExxonMobil Production Co. on Monday said it has successfully drilled and cased the first of two development natural gas wells for its Point Thomson project on Alaska’s North Slope to a targeted gas reservoir more than 1.5 miles under the Beaufort Sea .

Point Thomson is a remote natural gas and condensate field that holds an estimated 8 Tcf of gas — about a quarter of the North Slope’s gas resources — and about 200 million bbl of condensate. The project is said to be critical to the success of any Alaska gas pipeline project.

The PTU-15 well was drilled to a measured depth of more than 16,000 feet, ExxonMobil said. A 60-mile ice road from Endicott, AK, to Point Thomson also was completed to transport materials and equipment to the site.

Dale Pittman, who manages ExxonMobil Alaska production, called the completion of the first development well another milestone for the oil major. ExxonMobil Senior Project Manager Lee Bruce added that the well “pushed the limits of drilling technology and demonstrated that the Point Thomson drilling plan is sound.”

The rig for PTU-15 is to be moved to the second development well, PTU-16, at Point Thomson to continue drilling. Work also continues on front-end engineering and design for the initial production system.

“We are continuing to progress the Point Thomson project work,” said Pittman. “We are ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the [Alaska] Department of Natural Resources to maintain the pace and momentum set by the more than 1,500 people and 150 companies that worked on the project over the past year.”

In mid-2008 the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) canceled all but one of the 44 leases for the Point Thomson unit because the state said the producers partnering in the unit — ExxonMobil, BP plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips — had failed to meet their drilling commitments (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7, 2008). The unit initially was created in 1977 by ExxonMobil to produce gas and oil from leases held by more than one company.

DNR early last year allowed ExxonMobil to drill two of the unit’s 31 disputed leases, and the PTU-15 and PTU-16 wells were partially completed (see Daily GPI, Dec. 10, 2009; Jan. 29, 2009). Last month a Superior Court judge in Alaska also ruled that the state had erred in terminating the Point Thomson leases and had violated the companies’ constitutional right to due process (see Daily GPI, Jan. 14).

The Point Thomson project, which is 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay, is scheduled to begin production in 2014. Field development is to include a gas-cycling plant designed to produce hydrocarbon liquids and reinject natural gas back into the reservoir, making Point Thomson the highest-pressure gas cycling operation in the world.

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