Project Profile
Value: US$2.9 million
Location: Northern Powder River Basin, on the border of Wyoming and Montana, USA
Reserves: 2 – 3 million barrels of oil
The Ash Creek Field is located in the northern Powder River Basin on the border of Wyoming and Montana in USA. Elk Petroleum had 100% working interest in the field and expected to retain that position with a staged development of the EOR project at Ash Creek. In September 2014 Elk Petroleum sold its Ash Creek assets to Sunshine Valley Petroleum and PRE Resources.
The Ash Creek Field was discovered in 1952 and has produced 5.8 million barrels of oil with the peak rate of 2,000 barrels of oil per day achieved in 1953. The Field had been subjected to a water flood starting in 1964 and was abandoned in 1997.
In March 2012, Elk committed to a staged chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project to commence in the 4th quarter of 2012. The field is part of an EOR project which will use an alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) chemical flood to recover an estimated 2 – 3 million barrels of oil from the Ash Creek Shannon Formation.
The Ash Creek Field appears to be well suited to either CO2 flood or chemical flood technologies but its remoteness from a source of CO2 coupled with the modest recovery expected from tertiary recovery technology, suggest chemical flooding as the most economical viable option of these two technologies. A number of wells have been re-entered by Elk as part of the EOR project, with a US$2.9 million Stage 1 of development commenced in the 4Q 2012.
Operators:
Sunshine Valley Petroleum
PRE Resources