ANWR’s KIC well gets surface maintenance

Chevron, operator of the KIC well in ANWR on Alaska’s eastern North Slope, is finalizing surface remediation work at the well site.

The well, drilled in partnership with BP in the winter of 1984-85, is the only well ever drilled onshore in the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also referred to as the coastal plain. Well results remain confidential.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods told Petroleum News April 28 that the company had a special use permit for placement of soil and gravel. The work this winter completes the permit requirements for remediation work at the well’s reserve pit, where subsidence had been observed.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, subsidence is “a dropping of the land surface,” in which cracks and fissures can appear. An ice road was constructed into the KIC well site, which is near the village of Kaktovik.

Woods said planning for the work began in 2004. This winter’s work was completed April 16. Reseeding will be done this summer.

KIC well historical tidbit: Security was so tight when the KIC #1 well was drilled that oil-based cuttings from the drilling operation were hauled to the Lower 48 instead of being disposed of at Prudhoe Bay. Why? Geologists can tell a lot about what’s in a well from studying the cuttings and there were oil scouts from competitive oil companies “all over the place,” one PNA source said. With the belief that an ANWR lease sale was imminent, Chevron and BP did not want a scout collecting the cuttings.

But after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill Congress and the president closed the 1002 area to oil and gas exploration and development.

—Kristen Nelson