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Apache running Cook Inlet test seismic
Apache, the Houston-based independent that arrived in Alaska last year, is currently running a seismic line onshore and offshore the west side of Cook Inlet, testing a new seismic acquisition technology that the company hopes will open the way to a multiyear 3-D seismic program in the Cook Inlet basin, Steve Adiletta, Apache senior geosciences advisor, told a House Resource Committee “lunch and learn” session on March 31.
“So far things are working very well,” Adiletta said.
Apache expects to know the results of the test around early May. And, if the data quality is good, the company should obtain permits in the fall for a 3-D seismic program. That program would likely last two to three years and would hopefully provide the necessary data to identify potential drilling prospects.
Apache likes to innovate with new technologies in petroleum basins that major operators are starting to leave, and the company identified the need for 3-D seismic in the Cook Inlet basin as essential to the exploration for new oil resources in the basin, Adiletta said. Apache is mainly interested in finding and developing oil, rather than gas, in Alaska — independent surveys by the U.S. Geological Survey and Alaska’s Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys have indicated the possibility of several hundred million barrels of undiscovered oil in the Cook Inlet basin, he said.
Wireless recorders The seismic technique that Apache wants to use involves the use of wireless sound recorders in the form of coffee-can sized units for placement on the ground surface or for burying, or in the form of small disks that can be dropped in the water offshore, Adiletta said. A single seismic crew could use the technology, both onshore and offshore. And Apache has established a lease position with leases scattered around the Cook Inlet region, thus enabling the seismic crew to move from one area to another as required to accommodate environmental issues such as the avoidance of beluga whales.
Apache, now one of the larger leaseholders in the Cook Inlet basin, has deliberately acquired leases scattered around the basin, with one-third onshore, one-third offshore and one-third in the transition zone, to enable the company to explore for oil all around the basin, Adiletta said.
—Alan Bailey
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