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EIS describes two-stage Shadura project NordAq’s gas development could feature six wells at site within Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge; initial test well is key Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Federal officials have released a draft environmental impact statement for NordAq Energy Inc.’s proposed Shadura natural gas development in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
NordAq plans to drill up to six production wells at a site about 13 miles northeast of Nikiski, the center of the Kenai Peninsula oil and gas industry.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, is taking public comments on the draft EIS until Feb. 4. Find the document at 1.usa.gov/dkeiCw.
NordAq is a small, Anchorage-based independent. Its president and part owner, Bob Warthen, is a geologist and veteran of the Cook Inlet oil and gas scene, having worked as a Unocal manager and as a consultant.
Refuge’s oil and gas legacy The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is a vast preserve encompassing nearly 2 million acres.
Franklin D. Roosevelt established the refuge in 1941. It originally was known as the Kenai National Moose Range. The refuge is home to a fabulous array of wildlife including moose, bears, lynx, wolves, bald eagles, salmon and trout, to name a few.
The refuge also has hosted oil and gas development since the 1950s. The EIS says the refuge has 13,252 acres of active oil and gas leases. Several oil and gas units have been established within the refuge, including the Swanson River, Beaver Creek and Birch Hill units.
NordAq’s proposed Shadura gas development is in the northwest portion of the refuge, west of the Hilcorp-operated Swanson River unit.
The federal government owns the land surface in the project area, while Cook Inlet Region Inc. owns the subsurface oil and gas estate. CIRI has entered into a lease with NordAq to develop the gas resource.
Federal regulations require the Fish and Wildlife Service to grant “adequate and feasible” access to the owners of inholdings for economic purposes. But the agency can impose conditions to minimize adverse impacts to the environment, including wetlands.
The draft EIS — the agency will issue a final version after taking public comments — is meant to assist the agency in arriving at a decision on Shadura access. The document looks at five alternatives: a “no action” alternative, NordAq’s proposed development (Alternative 2), and three variations on the route of the access road to the site.
Two of the alternatives (Alternatives 4 and 5) would have the access road coming from the south or east, out of the Swanson River field and its existing road system. NordAq proposes going in from the northwest, off the Kenai Spur Highway.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet chosen a “preferred” alternative, the EIS says.
Two construction stages NordAq, along with several other companies, are looking to alleviate a looming gas shortage in Southcentral Alaska, which long has relied on gas from the Kenai Peninsula and around the Cook Inlet to heat and power homes and businesses. Mature fields in the region that once held ample supplies are now depleting.
NordAq in early 2011 drilled a wildcat exploratory well, the Shadura No. 1. The company has not made clear the size of its apparent gas discovery.
Warthen told Petroleum News on March 22 that the 14,624-foot well was drilled at the edge of the reservoir. The proposed Shadura development pad is more than a mile due east of the wildcat.
The EIS says NordAq proposes a two-stage construction program.
First, a 4.3-mile gravel access road and a “minimal” drilling pad would be built.
“Then one natural gas well would be drilled and tested,” the EIS says. “If the results of this testing were unfavorable, all equipment and gravel would be removed and the affected areas would be restored to approximate preconstruction conditions. If the results of testing were favorable, the second stage would be constructed.”
The second stage would involve expanding the pad for further drilling, and for production facilities. The pad would be 500 feet by 550 feet, with a working surface of about 6.5 acres.
Five additional gas wells would be drilled, plus an industrial water well and a waste disposal well.
According to a schedule in the EIS, drilling of the initial test well would start in June, and first production from Shadura would begin in June 2014.
NordAq proposes to lay two buried gas gathering lines, each up to 8 inches in diameter. One would be the primary gas carrier; the other would be a backup and provide extra capacity, if needed. The lines would run roughly 4 miles from Shadura toward the Cook Inlet coast.
“Shadura gas will be sold directly into the pipeline that connects the Tyonek A platform from offshore to the LNG plant in Nikiski,” the EIS says. The platform, pipeline and liquefied natural gas plant are ConocoPhillips properties.
Shadura would operate for about 30 years, the EIS says.
3-D seismic plans The application for a right-of-way permit NordAq and CIRI filed in March said: “It is anticipated that the six natural gas wells will produce about 50 million cubic feet/day” for processing and delivery to the ConocoPhillips pipeline.
But Warthen, in his conversation with Petroleum News in March, said the 50 million cubic feet was the “facility design volume,” that actual production could be less depending on the market for gas.
The EIS says full-field development of Shadura could include “the addition of one or two satellite drill sites,” one to the north and one south.
NordAq also is proposing a 48-square-mile three-dimensional seismic survey, beginning in January with completion by April 30.
“The purpose of the survey is to image the sub-surface rock strata of the Shadura geologic discovery to help in planning for exploration and development,” the EIS says. “The proposed survey area is located west of the Swanson River Oil and Gas Unit and east of the Cook Inlet coastline.”
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