State issues permit for Shadura seismic
Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas has issued a permit to SAExploration Inc. to allow the geophysics company to do seismic surveying on state land in the Shadura area of the northern Kenai Peninsula this winter. The complete area of the planned seismic program straddles some of the northern portion of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and extends to but does not cross the bluffs along the northwestern coastline of the peninsula. According to a map accompanying the division permit approval document, the survey area encompasses a combination of federal, state, Native, municipal and private land.
Cook Inlet Region Inc. has commissioned the seismic program, Jason Moore, CIRI corporate communications director, told Petroleum News Jan. 13. CIRI, which owns some of the subsurface land in the survey area, is seeking natural gas resources, Moore said. CIRI is leaving its options open as to who might drill for gas, based on the seismic results, he said.
NordAq exploration NordAq Energy Inc. had been exploring for gas in CIRI subsurface land in the Shadura prospect and had announced “a significant natural gas discovery” following the drilling of the Shadura No. 1 well in 2011. The company had planned to drill a Shadura No. 2 appraisal well and had obtained a permit to drill this well. But Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records do not indicate that the well has been drilled. Moore said that CIRI has revoked Nordaq’s Shadura leases because the company has not met work commitments associated with the leases.
At the time this issue went to press NordAq had not responded to questions about its Shadura program.
3-D and 2-D seismic CIRI’s planned new seismic project involves the collection of about 16 square miles of 3-D seismic and about 42 linear miles of 2-D seismic, the division says, including about 2.5 square miles of state land. The bulk of the area appears to lie within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Helicopters will deploy and retrieve equipment and personnel involved in the surveying operations. Charges will be detonated one at time across the survey area as sound sources, with autonomous receivers recording the reflected sounds. SAE expects the survey to take place between Feb. 1 and April 15, the division says.
- ALAN BAILEY
|