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State releases Susitna access study Outlines and evaluates five possible road routes for access to natural resources in remote country to the west of the Susitna River Alan Bailey Petroleum News
While long known to be a potential source of valuable mineral, energy, forestry and other resources, the vast area of swamps, rivers and muskeg to the west of Alaska’s Susitna River, south of the Alaska Range, presents formidable access challenges for any would-be resource developer. The region has no roads. And traversing east to west across the region involves some significant river crossings, potentially including the crossing of the Yentna River and the mighty Susitna River itself.
Resource access As an initial look at the possibility of improving access to the west Susitna region, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has now published the results of a study into possible road routes into and across the region. The study comes as part of a statewide strategy to open up as much state land as possible for natural resource use and development — the state has for several years been pursuing a “roads to resources” program, investigating possible new road routes that might facilitate resource access
Rather than trying to arrive at a single road concept for development, the objective of this reconnaissance-level study was to take a broad look at the west Susitna region, characterizing general resource development opportunities and evaluating possible road routes for access to those opportunities.
Much of the region is occupied by the Susitna basin, a geologic basin thought to be prospective for natural gas and known to hold coal resources. The extreme southwest of the region overlaps the Cook Inlet basin, with its operational oil and gas fields.
Five potential routes The study report says that, given the wide variety of potential development opportunities in the region, there is no single target destination for possible access roads. In fact, the study identified 10 possible road corridors and then, after rejecting some corridors because of issues such as engineering challenges and excessive cost, ended up with a shortlist of five potential candidates. Each road route could, to varying degrees, access several areas of potentially valuable natural resource.
Resources considered in road-route evaluation consisted of hard-rock minerals; placer gold; coal; oil and gas; timber; agriculture; and recreation.
A key component of road-route assessment was the question of identifying locations where road crossings of the Susitna River might be feasible. The only existing river crossing is at Sunshine, about 12 miles south of the village of Talkeetna, where the Parks Highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks spans the river. The only other location with a particularly suitable combination of factors for successful bridge construction, including suitable approach topography and high river banks, is at Susitna Landing, at mile 26 of the river, near Big Lake. A third possible but marginally suitable location, suffering from channel migration and unstable river banks, is at the Deshka River, at mile 40 of the Susitna, the report says.
Beluga route One of the five potential routes determined from the study is called the Beluga route and would use a river crossing at Susitna Landing for access to a road west to the existing oil and gas field infrastructure at Beluga on the west side of the Cook Inlet. This road, with a length of 63.8 miles and an estimated cost of $257 million, could have high value in supporting oil and gas development, and in support of the development of major coal resources known to exist in the Beluga area. The route would also have high value for recreational use. However, the route would do little to support hard-rock mining or forestry, the report says.
Asked how useful a Beluga road might be, Apache Alaska Corp., a company that is actively exploring the Cook Inlet basin, told the study team that a road to the west side of Cook Inlet would make operations in that area more economically efficient and less weather dependent. Cook Inlet Energy Inc., a company also exploring in this area, commented that a road would make exploration faster and cheaper, and that it would also lower field development costs. Aurora Gas, operator of several gas fields in the area, said that a road would be “very useful.”
ConocoPhillips told the team that land access would be useful but is not critical for the operation of the company’s Beluga River gas field on the west side of the inlet. Hilcorp Alaska, operator of several west Cook Inlet oil and gas fields, said that road access would not currently have a direct impact on any of its projects.
Coal companies with interests in the region said that a Beluga road would be useful or very useful. Native regional corporation Cook Inlet Region Inc. said that a Beluga road would be very helpful for oil and gas development, but that a deepwater port would be more useful for coal development.
North Petersville In the northern end of study area, the study team suggested the possibility of a road that runs west from the existing Petersville Road, a spur road on the west side of the Parks Highway, north of Sunshine. This route, termed the North Petersville Road, would pass west to the upper Skwentna area, an area especially prospective for hard-rock mining, near Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range. A road along this route would be 78.8 miles in length and might cost $376 million. In addition to hard-rock mining, this road could provide access to some significant coal resources, the report says.
A North Skwentna road route, another route that could connect the upper Skwentna area to the Parks Highway, would run west from an existing road called Oil Well Road, would be 71.6 miles in length and might cost $504 million. Of the six routes identified in the study, this route would provide the best access to both hard-rock mining and forestry prospects, the report says.
Middle Susitna-Skwentna River route A third possible route to the upper Skwentna area would require a bridge across the Susitna River at the Susitna Landing, with the route then passing northwest across the lowlands of the Susitna Valley. This route, 107.9 miles in length and called the Middle Susitna-Skwentna River route, would potentially cost $453 million. The relative length of this route would provide access to an especially large number of prospects for hard-rock mining, placer gold mining and forestry, the report says.
The fifth potential route, called the Deshka Variant, would originate near Deshka Landing, west of the town of Willow, and after crossing the Susitna River would parallel the Deshka River north to the Oil Well Road. A road along this route would be 33.5 miles in length and might cost $72 million. A particular appeal of this route is access to land with agriculture and timber potential, relatively close to existing infrastructure. The route would also provide access to a relatively high acreage of land with oil and gas potential, the report says.
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