By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 17 -- BP America Inc. plans to invest as much as $2.2 billion to double production from its acreage in Wamsutter natural gas field to 250 MMscfd by 2010. Wamsutter field is in southwest Wyoming's Green River basin.
The outlay includes the drilling of 2,000 wells over the next 15 years and a 2-year, $120 million technology field trial program that could lead to additional field development, BP America said. The program involves untested or relatively new exploration, production, and environmental technologies that have not yet been applied on a field-wide scale, said BP America's Jack Rigg.
The expansion program is expected to increase the company's share of ultimate recovery from the field by 1.8 tcf of natural gas.
The funding is part of a projected 10-year, $15 billion investment program BP plans for North American onshore operations—$5 billion of it targeted for this year.
"This major investment follows more than 2 years of focused, accelerated drilling and technical studies which revealed the untapped potential of the Wamsutter resource," said Tony Hayward, chief executive, BP Exploration & Production. He said the program has identified 1,600 new development locations.
The 1,700 sq mile Wamsutter field is one of the largest tight gas resources in North America. Its multiple operators have produced 2 tcf of gas from more than 2,000 wells since the field's discovery in 1958. BP, the largest Wamsutter operator, holds an interest in 352,000 acres and operates 950 wells. Other large operators are Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; Marathon Oil Corp.; Yates Petroleum Corp., Artesia, NM; and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.
