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Chevron plans drilling at Ivan River Company proposes to drill a new gas production well and convert a well for disposing cuttings; further wells could follow Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Chevron’s Ivan River gas field, six miles or so northeast of Beluga on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, has been quietly delivering gas into the Southcentral gas grid since the field first went on line in 1990. The last production wells were drilled in the field in the early 1990s.
But, according to Chevron’s latest Ivan River unit plan of development, the company plans to start some new drilling to further delineate the field and add new production wells.
“Chevron’s objective is to increase supplies of natural gas in the Cook Inlet, particularly during the peak winter months when demand is highest,” Roxanne Sinz, Chevron manager public relations and communications, told Petroleum News Sept. 3. “This project at Ivan River is part of our long-range strategy to offset production declines at our existing gas fields in Cook Inlet by investing in continued development drilling.”
Out for review The new Ivan River plan of operation is out for public review, as part of an Alaska Coastal Management Plan consistency review.
“One new gas well and one disposal well conversion are initially planned at the Ivan River pad as part of the Ivan River unit gas development and production program,” the plan of development says.
Chevron plans to carry out this initial work in the winter of 2008-09. Preparation of the Ivan River pad for the drilling will take place between October and November. This preparation will include the removal of some existing well houses to create space for the drilling rig, and the installation of a well cellar at the new well location.
Then between November 2008 and March 2009, with the drilling rig on site, existing well Ivan River Unit 13-31 will be converted to a class II disposal well and a new Ivan River Unit 14-31 well will be drilled at the southeast end of the well pad. Chevron plans to use the disposal well to dispose of drilling mud and cuttings and is setting up grind-and-inject equipment on the well pad. The new production well will target the Sterling, Beluga and Tyonek formations.
Depending on the drilling results, additional wells may be drilled in subsequent winters to further delineate and develop the field.
Year-round use of rig Sinz said that the drilling program is capitalizing on the opportunity to use the drilling rig that ConocoPhillips is using in the Beluga River unit, not far from Ivan River. Chevron will move the rig to Ivan River for drilling operations there during the winter, thus enabling year-round use of the rig in combination with ConocoPhillips’ summer operations — the rig may move back to Beluga in the summer of 2009, with Chevron taking over the rig again during the following winter.
“Although winter drilling at Ivan River is much more costly and has greater associated operational risk, it is the only season during which operations in the area are permitted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game,” Sinz said. “Chevron is committed to pursuing all viable opportunities to increase the gas available from our Cook Inlet assets.”
Chevron acquired the Ivan River field when it bought out Unocal in 2005. The company owns a 100 percent interest in the field, which lies in state land.
Discovered in 1966 The field was originally discovered in September 1966 when the Ivan River unit well 44-1 discovering commercial quantities of gas in the Tyonek formation. In fact three wells were drilled in the Ivan River unit between June 1966 and May 1975. Production started in 1990 after Unocal had completed a pipeline to connect the field to Enstar Natural Gas Co.’s pipeline that runs north from Beluga to the Matanuska and Susitna valleys and Anchorage.
Between 1992 and 1993 Unocal drilled two new development wells and redrilled an existing well. In 2001 the company redrilled another well and obtained a class II disposal injection order for another well. Water wells drilled on the well pad supply water for field operations.
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