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Hilcorp requests changes at Deep Creek Requests 400-acre expansion of Happy Valley Beluga/Tyonek gas pool, also vertical extension; hearing tentatively set for Feb. 24 KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska LLC has asked the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to expand the areal extent and vertical limits of the Happy Valley Beluga/Tyonek gas pool in the Deep Creek unit as described in the commission’s Conservation Order 533.
Hilcorp is the operator and sole working interest owner in the unit, which is on state and Cook Inlet Region Inc. leases on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
In a Jan. 12 letter, Hilcorp told the commission the expansion of the pool’s boundary would encompass “recently discovered and anticipated productive zones” of the gas pool. The expansion includes some 400 acres. Hilcorp asked for administrative action from the commission because the proposed modifications do not require changes to any substantive pool rules, but simply seek to modify the legal description of the pool “to match the latest geologic interpretation of the pool’s location.”
In a Jan. 15 supplement to the original proposal Hilcorp also asked for a change in the vertical description of the Happy Valley Beluga/Tyonek gas pool. The current vertical description is the interval between measured depths of 2,997 feet and 10,046 feet in the Superior Happy Valley No. 31-22 well. The proposed definition would include gas-bearing intervals correlating with the interval between measured depths of 2,246 feet and 10,046 feet of the Superior Happy Valley No. 31-22 well.
“Data supporting this request was obtained through the drilling of the recent HBV-17 well, as correlated to the HV 31-22 well,” the company said.
The participating area Hilcorp said the Deep Creek unit is jointly managed by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and CIRI. Maps accompanying the application appear to show that approximately half of the Deep Creek unit is on state leases and half on CIRI leases. The Happy Valley participating area, the portion of the unit currently producing, includes one state tract, some 155 acres, and three CIRI tracts, almost 1,085 acres.
Hilcorp said it has provided pre-application briefing material to DNR and CIRI. “As a result of this consultation, Hilcorp will initially test and produce HBV-17 on a tract basis until such time as it is appropriate to expand the Happy Valley Participating Area,” the company said. “Doing so will expedite production (and thus prevent waste) and adequately protect the respective correlative rights of both CIRI and the state.”
Producing since 2004 Standard Oil Company of California explored at Deep Creek in 1958 and Union Oil Company of California, following up on that exploration work, brought the Deep Creek unit online in 2004. Between 2003 and 2009 13 wells were drilled.
Since Hilcorp took over it has drilled three development wells and acquired some 50 square miles of 3-D seismic over the unit.
The commission has tentatively set a public hearing for Feb. 24 at 9 a.m. and said written requests for the hearing must be filed no later than Feb. 5. If there are no timely requests filed for the hearing, the commission said it would consider issuance of an order without a hearing.
The commission also said written comments on the petition may be submitted to the commission and must be received no later than Feb. 22, or, if a hearing is held, by the end of the Feb. 24 hearing.
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