The Denver-based independent began delivering natural gas from its North Fork unit into the Enstar Natural Gas system on March 31, according to Enstar spokesman John Sims.

The onshore unit, located in the southern Kenai Peninsula some 10 miles north of Homer, is now the southernmost producing field in Alaska. North Fork is connected to the Southcentral transmission grid through two new pipelines completed this year.

Through a 2009 supply agreement, Enstar can purchase up to 1.2 billion cubic feet a year from Armstrong, up to 10 bcf altogether. That additional production covers about 3 percent of Enstar’s daily deliverability needs.

“It’s a little piece that goes a little way toward solving the problem, but the problem is still there,” Sims told Petroleum News.

Standard Oil of California discovered North Fork in 1965, but the field sat idle until the 1990s, when several independent companies attempted to develop it. Armstrong acquired the property in 2007, brought on four partners and drilled several wells.

Armstrong plans to continue developing both the natural gas and oil potential of the field.