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Chevron permitting Birch Hill pads, road North Swanson project includes evaluation of existing Birch Hill well, possible second pad between Birch Hill and Swanson River Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Chevron Corp. subsidiary Union Oil Company of California is permitting development of natural gas resources at the Birch Hill unit. Birch Hill, also referred to as the North Swanson River satellite, is in Southcentral Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula.
The company said in its plan of operations that while the plan addresses the development and production phases of the project, “the production phase will only occur if commercially viable quantities of hydrocarbons are discovered in the area.”
Birch Hill has a shut-in Tyonek formation gas well. In addition to Chevron, which has a 78.71 percent working interest, CIRI Production Co. has a 19.68 percent interest and Marathon Oil Co. has a 1.61 percent working interest.
Chevron is the Swanson River unit operator and has 100 percent working interest at Swanson River, which produces natural gas from the Sterling and Beluga formations, and oil from the Hemlock formation. Two depleted Tyonek formation gas pools at Swanson River are used for natural gas storage.
An environmental impact statement was written for the Swanson River satellites projects. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a record of decision for the final EIS in 2004. The selected alternative for the gravel access road was a 3.83-mile road from Swanson River field to the existing Birch Hill unit 22-25 pad to access the existing natural gas well for evaluation.
Planned work includes vegetation clearing and road construction in the fall and winter of 2009; well testing and drilling in the winter and spring of 2010; and facility construction in the spring and summer of 2010.
Possible second pad The North Swanson River satellite includes the Birch Hill unit, a one-well field, and the land between Birch Hill and the Swanson River field boundaries. In addition to installation of a gravel access road and pipelines to tie the existing Birch Hill well into the Swanson River field, if reserves warrant a second pad location would be built along the right of way for drilling and production activities.
The satellite is some three miles northeast of the northern Swanson River field boundary.
Access will be via existing Swanson River field roads and the new road will originate from the ARCO Bufflehead right of way to the location of the former Bufflehead pad and then proceed north to the proposed pad NS-A and then to the existing Birch Hill well for a total of some 3.83 miles.
The existing Birch Hill pad is approximately 105 feet by 305 feet and will be improved and enlarged to approximately 300 feet by 400 feet. The second pad, NS-A, would also be approximately 300 feet by 400 feet.
Flowline to Swanson River If there are commercially viable quantities of hydrocarbons, a flowline would be installed from the Birch Hill pad back to the Swanson River field gathering infrastructure. Additional facilities would be installed at the well site as necessary.
The flowline would be a buried natural gathering line from 4 inches to 10 inches in diameter; it would be constructed from each of the satellite well pads along the roadway to tie in with existing Swanson River infrastructure. The line would be approximately 3.8 miles in length.
Installation would be in a trench along the right of way.
In addition to the natural gas flowline, other utilities might be buried in the pipeline trench: a 3- to 4-inch high-density polyethylene line for transport of produced water from the satellite to Swanson River facilities; a 4- to 6-inch steel secondary product line for possible use as a redundant gas or water line; and electrical, communication or other service lines.
When production operations cease, production facilities will be removed, wells abandoned and surface sites restored.
Additional wells The company said additional wells may be drilled to fully develop the resource.
“Current knowledge of the geologic structures indicates a potential reserve accumulation of recoverable gas, which may support more wells than initially planned, depending upon reservoir quality.”
Additional development drilling is not anticipated to occur until 2010 or later.
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