Unocal Alaska said today that a new natural gas reservoir has been discovered on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula with a well test at more than 11 million cubic feet a day and potential in the area of 100-600 billion cubic feet.
The Grassim Oskolkoff No. 1 well, the first exploration well drilled under a joint operating agreement between Unocal and Marathon Oil Co. in the Ninilchik exploration unit, indicates significant natural gas accumulations, Unocal said in a Jan. 22 statement. The Grassim Oskolkoff is 35 miles south of Kenai.
Unocal said a 39 foot interval in the Miocene formation yielded restricted flow rates of up to 11.2 million cubic feet of gas per day from a zone at 9,822 feet. The well was drilled to a total depth of 11,600 feet and Unocal said several significant untested intervals exist in the well.
Unocal holds a 40 percent working interest in the well and the 25,000 acre Ninilchik exploratory unit. Marathon is operator and holds the remaining interest.
"We are pleased with the initial results of our south Kenai gas exploration program and we look forward to working with Marathon Oil to fully appraise the potential of the Ninilchik structure," Chuck Pierce, vice president of Unocal Alaska, said in a statement.
Pierce said Unocal has begun a separate three-well exploration program on the southern Kenai Peninsula which it expects to complete by May.
Unocal has acquired a total position in excess of 80,000 net acres and believes the net unrisked resource potential of the Ninilchik unit and the additional prospects Unocal plans to test by mid-2002 could be between 100 and 600 billion cubic feet. By the end of 2002, Unocal expects to have completed and tested eight wells on the trend: five wells in the Ninilchik unit and three wells on the other Unocal prospects.
Marathon said it was also putting out a release on this discovery, but PNA doesn't yet have that information.
