Armstrong completes North Fork well

Armstrong Cook Inlet completed the North Fork Unit No. 14-25 well in mid-October, according to a recent report from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Armstrong drilled the exploration well from the North Fork pad, where the Denver-based independent also drilled the North Fork Unit No. 34-26 well in the summer of 2008. The results of that well justified the decision to sanction development and delineate the field.

The North Fork unit is about 10 miles north of Homer on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

Armstrong drilled the 11,700-foot directional well bearing east from the pad to a total vertical depth of 10,311, slightly deeper than the 9,000-foot NFU No. 34-26 well.

The well is one of two Armstrong permitted with the AOGCC this past summer, the other being the North Fork Unit No. 32-35 well planned to bear south from the well pad.

With its drilling program this year, Armstrong plans to target both the natural gas potential of the Tyonek formation and the oil potential of the deeper Hemlock formation.

Armstrong is on pace to start natural gas sales from North Fork in 2011.

—Eric Lidji