Hilcorp planning Bartolowits program

Development program calls for drilling two wells this year and as many as three more by 2017 to develop gas at Ninilchik unit

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

Hilcorp Alaska LLC is planning a five-well program at the Ninilchik unit.

The Houston-based independent plans to drill two development wells at the Bartolowits pad by the end of the year and as many as three additional wells through 2017.

The Bartolowits pad is in the northern portion of the Ninilchik unit, a coastal unit in the southern Kenai Peninsula between the communities of Clam Gulch and Ninilchik.

The development program builds on recent exploration work Hilcorp has conducted at the unit. The company drilled four exploration wells at Ninilchik in 2013: Susan Dionne No. 8, Paxton No. 5, Frances No. 1 and Falls Creek No. 5. The program primarily targeted gas but included some of the first oil exploration work at the field in decades.

The 12,000-foot Susan Dionne No. 8 well was non-commercial for oil, but the results led Hilcorp to build the Bartolowits pad in August 2013 and drill the Frances No. 1 exploration well later in the year. Although the second well also non-commercial for oil, it showed “strong potential” for natural gas production, which Hilcorp is now pursuing.

The current development program calls for drilling the 10,000-foot Frances No. 2 well in October and the 10,000-foot Frances No. 3 well in November, with the Frances No. 4, Frances No. 5 and Frances No. 6 wells coming in subsequent years, as necessary.

The existing Frances No. 1 and proposed Frances No. 2 wells target private oil and gas leases. The other four proposed well locations would target state oil and gas leases, although the precise bottomhole locations would depend on the results of earlier wells.

Hilcorp is requesting a waiver for the state prohibition against building onshore facilities within half a mile of the mean high water mark for the Cook Inlet region. Given the existing drilling pad and well, which the state previously permitted, and the fact that the development is targeting gas, which cannot spill like crude oil, Hilcorp believes the concern can be adequately addressed by building an 18-inch berm around the facilities.

The program would use existing Bartolowits facilities.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments through Sept. 5.

When Hilcorp announced plans for the Frances No. 2 and Frances No. 3 wells, it described both as being “appraisal” wells targeting the Tyonek and Beluga formations.

Those plans also called for drilling the 9,000-foot Falls Creek No. 6 well to follow up on Frances No. 2 and further appraise the Tyonek and Beluga north of the Falls Creek pad.

At that time, Hilcorp also announced plans to build independent Bartolowits facilities to support Frances No. 1 gas production. The facilities required boring a pipeline corridor underneath the Sterling Highway connecting to the existing Kenai-Nikiski Pipeline.

Hilcorp has also proposed exploration activities in the southern half of the unit.