NordAq seeks Kenai road easement

Anchorage-based independent NordAq Energy Inc. is applying for a private easement to support its natural gas exploration and development efforts on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.

The state Department of Natural Resources is taking public comment on the application through May 20.

The proposed road easement would be 80 feet wide and 9,504 feet or 1.8 miles long.

A map indicates the all-season gravel road would start near the Captain Cook State Recreation Area northeast of the Nikiski community.

The road would run south to an appraisal well pad. Farther south is the site of the Shadura No. 1 wildcat well, which NordAq drilled in early 2011. The company constructed an ice road to reach the site.

NordAq is pursuing a gas development project on a proposed drilling and processing pad more than a mile east of the Shadura No. 1 well. NordAq has said it might drill up to six production wells.

The project is inside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

In December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft environmental impact statement. The EIS looked at various alternatives to permit road access to the Shadura development site.

The federal government owns the land surface in the project area, while Cook Inlet Region Inc. owns the subsurface oil and gas estate. CIRI has entered into a lease with NordAq to develop the gas resource.

Federal regulations require the Fish and Wildlife Service to grant “adequate and feasible” access to the owners of inholdings for economic purposes.

An April 19 DNR notice said NordAq, in its original application for the gravel road easement, also included requests to authorize gas gathering lines and communications cables to be co-located with the access road.

Subsequently, NordAq amended its request to include authorization of only the access road at this time, the DNR notice said.

The company indicated it would submit a separate application “at a future date” for the remainder of the infrastructure, the notice said.

—Wesley Loy