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Escopeta’s North Alexander well in ACMP review
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Escopeta Oil Co. LLC’s North Alexander prospect gas exploration well is under review for consistency with the Alaska Coastal Management Program. Escopeta is proposing to drill the North Alexander No. 1 well on the west side of Cook Inlet, some 13 miles north of Beluga. The prospect includes four state oil and gas leases and the well will target gas producing sandstones in the Beluga and Upper Tyonek formations.
The closest existing wells are Lewis River 1-A, six miles to the southwest, and Isla Grande 1, some 2.5 miles to the southeast.
The Department of Natural Resources Office of Project Management and Permitting said in an Oct. 29 public notice that comments are due on or before Nov. 27; a final determination will be issued by Dec. 17.
Escopeta proposes to use as much existing infrastructure as possible, including Grant’s Landing, the Beluga airstrip, state gravel lease roads and bridges, commercial camp facilities, construction equipment, personnel, permitted water sources and staging areas.
Final access to the well site would be by a 7-mile temporary ice road along the Enstar buried gas pipeline right of way. The temporary drilling pad would be constructed of ice and reinforced with composite mats.
Northeast of Lewis River The 22,882-acre prospect is onshore on state oil and gas leases within the Susitna Flats State Game Refuge; both surface and subsurface mineral estates are state owned.
The well site is about 6.5 miles northeast of the Lewis River unit.
Both the temporary ice road and the ice pad are expected to be built in December. The drilling schedule is dependent on rig availability, mobilization and weather.
The North Alexander 1 is planned as an 8,500-foot vertical hole.
Equipment will be barged Prior to ice forming in Cook Inlet equipment and freight will be barged to Grant’s Landing near Beluga. When barging is no longer possible due to ice, freight would be flown to the 5,000-foot airstrip at Beluga. Gravel roads on state lands would be used from the staging area in Beluga to an approved site as close as possible to the proposed well site. The temporary ice road would be built from south of Lewis River drill site 1-A to the proposed well site.
Until completion of the temporary ice road and pad, Beluga would serve as Escopeta’s base of operations and staging area. During operations personnel would be housed at a camp facility in Beluga.
The North Alexander well site is just south of Mount Susitna, about 1.5 miles west of the Susitna River on a low, southeast-facing ridge at 55 feet above sea level in low shrub and mixed lowland forest.
The North Alexander unit terms require Escopeta to drill a well in the winter of 2007-08, holding leases which would otherwise have expired in January 2007.
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