Eni at Nikaitchuq: offshore oil field work continues.

• Author: Bradner, Mike
• Position: Oil & Gas

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In the Inupiat language of the Arctic Slope the word Nikaitchuq means "persevrence," David Moles, senior representative for Eni Oil and Gas in Alaska, told the Resource Development Council last November. It is a quality that Eni, Alaska's newest oil developer, has had to have in abundance, Moles said, as the company worked to overcome the challenges of its new offshore oil field on the North Slope.

It was named, appropriately, Nikaitchuq. Eni, headquartered in Italy and new to Alaska, has had to learn its way through all the usual problems of developing a new project on the North Slope, and also to overcome the technical challenges posed by heavy, viscous quality of the oil, Moles said. The State of Alaska has stepped in to assist Eni with this technically challenged project with a reduction in the State royalty, which was negotiated with the Department of Natural Resources.

Eni isn't the first newcomer to break its way into the exclusive Slope producer club. That honor goes to Pioneer Natural Resources Co., a major independent. But as a major company entering the North Slope, Eni brings a depth of engineering and technical know-how that it is using on the unique problems of Nikaitchuq.

HEAVY CRUDE, HARD FLOW

The biggest of those is that the viscous oil, a type of heavy, thick crude that is cold and difficult to produce. Eni's strategy, Moles told the RDC, is to produce the oil, which flows like thick syrup, with a massive injection of hot water to loosen it up. It this works as hoped, and the oil flows, it could encourage more development of the massive viscous and heavy oil resources of the Slope.

Even in its first phase, Nikaitchuq is putting its imprint on Alaska. It is a $2 billion project, and this past year Eni employed about 500 contractor workers in drilling and construction as well as more than 90 Eni employees split between Anchorage and the North Slope. It was one of two major new projects under way on the North Slope in 2010, the other being ExxonMobil Corp.'s Point Thomson gas-condensate project.

It was a slow year for oil activity and the state's petroleum support industry was glad to work with Eni.

Eni isn't well known in Alaska yet, but it is known elsewhere, Moles told the RDC. The company has 78,000 employees worldwide and operates in all of the world's oil-producing regions. Interestingly, the company is "horizontally" as well as "vertically" integrated, which means, in traditional vertical...