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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
August 2014

Vol. 19, No. 34 Week of August 24, 2014

Doyon moving ahead with Nenana seismic; shooting in area of 2 wells

Doyon Ltd., the Native regional corporation for Alaska’s Interior, has applied for a state land-use permit for a seismic survey that the corporation plans to conduct in the Nenana basin. According to the permit application the corporation wants to conduct a 3-D survey over an approximately 30-square-mile area about three miles west of the town of Nenana. The corporation also wants to gather 2-D seismic data along two transects, one extending about three miles to the northeast of the 3-D survey, and the other extending about 2.8 miles to the survey’s north.

Prospective basin

The Nenana basin, a large sediment-filled basin southwest of the city of Fairbanks, has long been thought to be prospective for natural gas. For several years Doyon has been spearheading exploration of the basin and has found evidence indicating that the basin is prospective for oil as well as for gas. The corporation’s exploration program has included 2-D seismic surveys in the basin in 2005 and 2012, and two deep exploration wells, one drilled in 2009 and the other drilled in 2013.

The wells, while failing to find commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, confirmed the existence of rocks in the subsurface that might source oil or gas and the existence of potential hydrocarbon reservoir rocks, including gas-bearing sands.

The wells were drilled in the same area as the 3-D survey that Doyon now plans to shoot, over a saddle in the narrow central part of the northeast-southwest oriented, dog-bone shaped basin.

Interesting feature

James Mery, Doyon’s vice president for lands and natural resources, told Petroleum News Aug. 18 that the 3-D survey will target one of several interesting subsurface features that Doyon has identified from previous 2-D surveys.

“The feature is certainly large enough to potentially hold the minimum field size … for an economic project. So we’re going to image it and hopefully go out and drill it,” Mery said, confirming that Doyon’s future drilling plans in the basin will depend on the findings from the new 3-D survey.

Mery said that Doyon is already preparing for the survey, which it anticipates conducting in the latter part of October, for completion in the first week or so of November. And a road which Doyon constructed for access to the second of its exploration wells runs across the survey area, thus simplifying land access, he commented.

The 2-D seismic lines will tie in with some previous 2-D data and will provide Doyon with a better picture of what is happening where the basin plunges to greater depths, to the north of the area where the corporation has conducted its exploration drilling, Mery said.

Focus on Nenana

Doyon also has exploration interests in the Yukon Flats basin, another sediment filled basin, to the north of Fairbanks. However, for the time being the corporation has decided to focus its efforts on the Nenana basin, Mery said. In addition to knowing a bit more about the Nenana basin than the Yukon Flats basin, Doyon is anxious to complete its Nenana work program before its Nenana leases expire - the exploration is being conducted in state oil and gas leases, most of which have five years to run from their original seven-year terms, Mery explained.

- Alan Bailey






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