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Linc Energy spuds first Alaska well The vertical LEA No. 1 well will test conventional gas targets near Point MacKenzie; Linc hopes to generate revenue quickly Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
Linc Energy has spud its first Alaska exploration well, the company said Oct 24.
The Australian company recently began drilling LEA No. 1, an onshore vertical well located just north of Point MacKenzie Road across Knik Arm from Anchorage.
In a prepared statement, Linc Energy CEO Peter Bond said the well was designed “to target a number of stacked gas objectives whilst intersecting regional coal measures.”
Bond said the quick turnaround on the leases, acquired earlier this year, demonstrated Linc’s commitment to the U.S. energy market.
“These Alaskan assets will be a definitive part of the early cash-flow opportunities for Linc Energy in the months ahead,” Bond said. “I look forward to updating the market on the results from LEA No. 1 and the expansion of our operations and exploration activities within Alaska in due course.”
Linc previously said it hoped to use revenue generated from the traditional exploration program to fund underground coal gasification projects in the Cook Inlet basin.
Acreage acquired in March Linc Energy entered Alaska in March, acquiring 122,000 acres from San Francisco-based independent GeoPetro. The acreage includes state and Alaska Mental Health Land Trust leases split between Granite Point on the west side of Cook Inlet and Point MacKenzie.
Although GeoPetro never drilled in Alaska, the company built a drilling pad and an access road to the well site, allowing Linc to start drilling relatively quickly.
In July, GeoPetro said Linc planned to drill LEA No. 1 deep enough to test dry natural gas deposits in the middle and lower Tyonek formations, and to depths equivalent to the Hemlock formation. Frontier Spirit No. 1, the well GeoPetro planned to drill in the area, would have tested Midnight Sun, a conventional gas prospect in the middle and lower Tyonek formations, at a depth of about 8,000 feet in an 11,500-acre structure.
Point MacKenzie exploration dates back to various efforts throughout the 1960s by the likes of Union Oil Co. of California, Atlantic Richfield and Pan American Petroleum that encountered coal seams, but not commercial amounts of oil or natural gas.
Linc plans to hold its annual meeting on Nov. 25 in Australia.
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