Doyon plans new Nenana seismic survey

As part of a continuing search for oil and natural gas in the Nenana basin, in Interior Alaska, about 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks, Doyon Ltd. is planning to carry out a 2-D seismic survey in the northern part of the basin during the winter of 2012, the Alaska Native regional corporation said March 16. Doyon will primarily conduct the survey on state land within the area of a state exploration license that Doyon holds. However, some Doyon-owned land and some land owned by Toghotthele Corp., the village corporation for the Nenana village, may be involved in the survey, Doyon said.

A partnership consisting of Doyon, Rampart Energy Co., Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Usibelli Energy LLC and Cedar Creek Oil & Gas Co. has been conducting an exploration program in the Nenana basin and in 2009 drilled the 11,000-foot Nunivak No. 1 well near Nenana. Doyon says that, although that well demonstrated the existence of an active petroleum system in the basin, the well did not encounter an economic accumulation of natural gas.

Doyon says that it has taken over from Rampart as operator of the Nenana exploration program and that, so far, Doyon is the only member of the partnership to commit to the new seismic survey. The regional corporation says that it is prepared to proceed with the survey without the participation of some or all or the other members of the partnership.

James Mery, Doyon senior vice president, lands and natural resources, told Petroleum News March 16 that the northern part of the basin, where the new survey will take place, is the deepest and broadest part of the basin. Analogous freshwater basins elsewhere in the world tend to have some of their most prolific petroleum plays in the basin centers, Mery said.

Doyon has licensed and re-interpreted some gravity and magnetic data for the basin, but there is no existing seismic data for the northern part of the basin, he said.

—Alan Bailey