Aurora applies for spacing exception for Endeavour well near Anchor Point
Aurora Gas has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for a spacing exception for its planned Endeavour oil exploration well near Anchor Point in the southern Kenai Peninsula. AOGCC’s notice of public hearing for the application has caught some people’s attention because it describes Endeavour as a gas well rather than an oil well. Aurora has always said that Endeavour will target an oil prospect in the Hemlock and Tyonek formations.
Ed Jones, Aurora’s executive vice president of engineering operations, has explained to Petroleum News that Aurora is applying for a gas spacing exception in case the well hits a gas accumulation during drilling operations. The nearby Griner well, drilled by Unocal a number of years ago, encountered gas, Jones said. And Andy Clifford, Aurora’s vice president exploration, told Petroleum News last August that the potential for finding gas reduces the economic risk of the project.
“There’s gas all the way down … so we may make a gas well out of it rather than nothing,” Clifford said at that time.
AOGCC regulations for spacing exceptions for gas wells are more stringent than those for oil wells. The regulations require a spacing exception if a gas well is within 1,500 feet of a property boundary where the land ownership changes. The corresponding distance for an oil well is 500 feet.
—Alan Bailey
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