Consortium partners:

• Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC)
• Germany GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ)
• Geological Survey of Canada (GSC)
• United States Geological Survey (USGS)
• United States Department of the Energy (USDOE)
• Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC)
• BP Canada Energy Company, Chevron Canada Resources and Burlington Resources Canada
• International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP)**

** participation enabled through the direct support of the project's four principle investigators; S.R. Dallimore (Canada), T. Collett (USA), M. Weber (Germany) and T. Uchida (Japan)

Well operator:

Japan Petroleum Exploration Company Canada Ltd. (JAPEX Canada) Manager - H. Takahashi (JAPEX), h_taka@pa2.so-net.ne.jp

Science Program Operator:

Scott R. Dallimore (Chief Scientist)

Project Management:

Steering Committee: Co-chairs J-S Vincent (GSC)/ N. Tezuka (JNOC) Responsibility authority for budget and program management.

Technical and Science committee- Chair S. Dallimore (GSC) Responsible for technical design and implementation of field operations and science program. Working teams assigned to various planning tasks.

• Science Team (geology and geophysics)- S. Dallimore (GSC)
• Modelling Team- T. Collett (USGS)
• Operations Team (drilling)- H. Takahashi (JAPEX)
• Production Test Team- T. Satoh (JAPEX)

Prime Canadian Contractors to assist operator:

Canadian Petroleum Engineering- Logistics, drilling, permits and contracting;
Ed Fercho, efercho@cpe.ab.ca

Adams Pearson Associates- Production testing;
Steve Hancock, shancock@apa-inc.com

Budget

Estimated direct costs for drilling and science program ~ $Cdn. 14.8M

Indirect costs pledged to support science program > $Cdn. 12M

Location:

Richards Island, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada

69^o 27' 40.7'' N
134o 39' 30.4'' W

The wells are located on the shore of the Beaufort Sea in the Canadian arctic. Permafrost is 640 m thick at the well location and mean annual air temperatures are about -10^oC.

Ground elevation:

~1.3 m

Key Dates:

August-September 2001: Mobilization by river barge of drill, camp and equipment to staging site located at Taglu Island ~20 km from drill sites

November 15 - December 2001: Road construction from staging site to drill site, mobilization of drill and camp to drill site

December 15, 2001: Proposed spud date of observation well #1; observation well #2 and main well to follow

February - March 2002: Full science program activities at drill site and Inuvik Research Centre laboratory

March 10, 2002: Proposed rig release date

Well descriptions:

• Observations wells
  • 2 proposed, in alignment with production test well and spaced 40 m on either side of production test well
  • proposed total depth: 1150 m from ground surface
  • Casing size to total depth: 139.7 mm (5 1/2'')
  • Comprehensive science program, cross-hole tomography studies, distributed temperature surveys, and monitoring production test
  • No.1 will be JAPEX/ JNOC/ GSC et al. Mallik 3L-38
  • No.2 will be JAPEX/ JNOC/ GSC et al. Mallik 4L-38
• Production test well
  • Proposed total depth: 1200 m from ground surface
  • Casing size to total depth: 177.8 mm (7'') O.D.
  • Comprehensive science program, coring, downhole logging, and production testing Well name: JAPEX/ JNOC/ GSC et al. Mallik 5L-38

Expected zone of hydrate occurrences:

~ 900 m - 1100 m below ground surface

Proposed coring:

8.5-day coring program for the production research well dedicated to the gas hydrate interval and zone immediately beneath the gas hydrate stability zone:

• wireline coring (~3 inch core)
• backup conventional coring

Proposed Geophysics Program

Downhole geophysical logs: a full suite of standard industry open-hole logs and a select suite of research logs are planned for the production test well. Logging in the observation wells is under discussion.

X-Hole Seismic: A variety of X-holes seismic experiments are planned to be conducted in the observation holes to both study the in situ gas hydrate reservoir characteristics and to study changes induced by production testing.

VSP survey: A walk-away VSP survey is planned for the observation wells.

Proposed gas hydrate production test program:

Several short duration wireline MDT tests, followed by 10-15 days thermal stimulation testing. Full instrumentation planned during testing with surface readout capabilities where operationally possible.

Permitting:

• Inuvialuit Environmental Screening- Approved
• Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
  • Land Use Permit- Approved
  • Water License- Approved
  • Wildlife Permit- Not applicable
• Science License- Approved
• Federal Government Environmental Assessment- Approved
• National Energy Board Authority to Drill a Well- Pending

Science Program Logistics:

• Inuvik Research Center
  • Full access to main facilities including: a science program office, 4 laboratories, cold room and shipping and receiving space
  • Three townhouses for accommodation with cook for meals
• Drill Site
  • Core lab/extraction container, science lab trailer, 2nd science lab trailer for general storage and simple experiments
  • Very limited accommodation on a priority basis
• Surface transport, aircraft transport, field communications
  • GSC to coordinate with Inuvik Research Centre

Location Map:

Location Map larger image [JPEG, 49.9 kb, 442 X 462, notice]

Green shows private ice roads.

• section Taglu staging site to drill site expected to open in early December.
• section south from staging site expected to be open in late December/early January.

Red shows Gov't of NWT Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Ice Road

• expected to open in January

Well Profile

Well Profile larger image [JPEG, 95.8 kb, 731 X 456, notice]