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State considering North Nenana license If issued, the proposed exploration license would include lands around Minto, just north of an earlier license near Nenana Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
The state is taking comments on a proposed exploration license north of Nenana.
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas recently received an exploration licensing application from an as-yet-unnamed company interested in looking for oil and gas in a ring around Minto.
The state is seeking additional proposals from companies interested in exploring for either oil and gas, or just gas in the same region, a step required by the licensing program.
The state is also taking comments on the proposal through July 1.
Previous exploration scarce The Interior is a relatively underexplored region of the state and the previous exploration wells have all been drilled near Nenana south of the proposed license area.
Union Oil Company of California drilled the Nenana No. 1 well to about 3,000 feet in 1962. The well was some 15 miles west of Nenana. ARCO drilled the Totek Hills No. 1 well to about 3,600 feet in 1984 to the southwest of Nenana.
The Denver-based independent Rampart Energy, on behalf of a five-company partnership including the Alaska Native corporation Doyon Ltd., drilled the Nunivak No. 1 well to about 11,100 feet in July 2009. The well was some five miles west of Nenana and some 40 miles south of Minto on the 482,942-acre Nenana basin exploration license.
In addition to Rampart and Doyon, the five-company partnership included Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Usibelli Energy LLC and Denver-based Cedar Creek Oil & Gas Co.
After the well failed to encounter an economic gas accumulation, Doyon proposed a seismic survey for the northern end of the Nenana Basin. At the time, there was no existing seismic data for northern reaches of the basin, although gravity and magnetic data has indicated that the basin reached its broadest and deepest extent in the north.
The partnership originally used the exploration license program to explore the 482,942-acre Nenana Basin and drill Nunivak No. 1. The Division of Oil and Gas approved the license for a seven-year term in October 2002, and later granted a three-year extension.
The state subsequently converted some of the license area into traditional leases.
Doyon permitting Nunivak In late 2012, Doyon began permitting a Nunivak No. 2 exploration well. The well would be seven miles west of Nunivak No. 1. Doyon plans to drill the well on its own.
Doyon also announced plans to conduct a seismic survey in a nearby Yukon Flats basin.
The Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys has recently been researching the Nenana Basin area and said it intends to publish detailed results from its interpretations of hydrocarbon reservoir and source rock quality in the basin by the end of this year.
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