CIRI to partner with Doyon for Nenana well

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

Cook Inlet Region Inc. has announced that it plans to partner with Doyon Ltd. for the drilling of the Totchaket No. 1 exploration well in the Nenana basin in the coming summer. Doyon has previously announced the planned drilling of the well as part of the Native regional corporation’s search for oil and gas in the Interior basin southwest of Fairbanks. Doyon has already drilled three wells in the central part of the basin - the Totchaket well will be in the deep northern part of the basin, close to what may be the basin’s kitchen for oil and gas resources.

CIRI has previously partnered with Doyon in the drilling of the third of the Nenana basin wells, the Toghotthele well, in 2016.

“CIRI values its continued partnership with Doyon,” said Sophie Minich, CIRI president and CEO, when announcing the proposed partnership. “We believe our continued investment at Nenana offers the potential for a basin-opening oil and gas discovery in Alaska.”

Although Doyon has yet to discover a commercial hydrocarbon pool from its Nenana drilling program, the wells drilled thus far have provided tantalizing evidence for an active oil and gas system in the basin. And amplitude anomalies in the data from a 3-D seismic survey conducted last year in the northern part of the basin suggest the presence of hydrocarbons in subsurface prospects.

“The presence of direct hydrocarbon indicators in the 2017 seismic data represents a significant and new step toward the confirmation of a commercially viable oil or gas discovery by the Totchaket No. 1 well,” said Ethan Schutt, CIRI senior vice president, land and energy development. “We see seismic data anomalies at multiple horizons spanning thousands of feet of sedimentary section that will be intersected by the Totchaket No. 1 well path.”

- ALAN BAILEY