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Cook Inlet Energy goes for Susitna gas Local producer plans to drill this winter at 2 prospects, Kroto and Moose creeks, near Willow; 3rd prospect east of Kahiltna River Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Cook Inlet Energy is moving ahead with plans to explore for natural gas in the Susitna basin starting this winter.
Three prospects - Kroto Creek, Moose Creek and Kahiltna - are on former or current exploration license areas, one of which has been partially converted to state leases.
In a revision to an existing exploration oil discharge prevention and contingency plan the company said these were potential sites in the Susitna basin “where AOGCC gas only certification may not be obtained.” The reference is to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which can certify a prospect as gas only.
“No liquid hydrocarbons have ever been encountered within the Susitna Basin, and there is no geological expectation that there is a liquid hydrocarbon system in the Susitna Basin,” Cook Inlet Energy said in its ODPCP revision.
The company described the proposed Kroto and Moose creek wells as between the Susitna and Yentna rivers and said the third prospect was east of the Kahiltna River.
The area is between Willow and Skwentna.
Kroto pad work last year Cook Inlet Energy completed a winter access trail and a two-well pad at Kroto Creek last year, and began discussing plans to drill two wells at Kroto Creek and a third farther west at Moose Creek.
The company said both Kroto Creek and Moose Creek are on ADL 390078; Kahiltna is in the exploration license area.
The maximum true vertical depth at Kroto would be 7,000 feet and the maximum TVD at Moose Creek 6,000 feet.
“Both will penetrate the Chickaloon formation,” the company said.
The Kroto Creek pad “has been prepared by grubbing and compacting the native soils in an upland area,” Cook Inlet Energy said. Up to two wells would be drilled from the existing Kroto Creek drill pad.
Access depends on the scope of work for the drilling season: route 1 to Kroto Creek and Moose Creek would be from the Willow Creek Landing; route 2 to Kahiltna and Kroto would be from Trapper Creek.
The Kroto Creek pad is in section 31, township 21 north, range 6 west, Seward Meridian. Willow Creek Landing is some 80 miles from Anchorage; Trapper Creek is 100 miles.
Kahiltna There is a road to the third prospect, Kahiltna, constructed in the early 1960s to the Pure Kahiltna Unit No. 1 well, a 7,265-foot vertical well drilled and plugged and abandoned in 1964. That well is in the Susitna IV exploration license area. Cook Inlet Energy said this section of the old road is used at an ATV trail; the company will shape and grade it and install six temporary bridges and an additional 1.6 mile trail from PKU No. 1 to a new Kahiltna No. 2 pad.
In an overall description of its plans Cook Inlet Energy said it proposes to drill up to two wells at the “existing Kroto Creek drill pad, construct a spur trail and pad, and drill up to one well in the Moose Creek prospect, construct a spur trail from the Pure Kahiltna Unit (PKU) #1 Pad to the new Kahiltna #2 Well location, build a pad and drill up to one well for the Kahiltna prospect.”
Work would begin in late 2014 or early 2015, “or subsequent winter seasons” once any needed ice bridges and snow-packed trails were completed.
—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.
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