Fledgling Alaska oil and gas company NordAq Energy Inc. announced it has wrapped up operations on its Shadura No. 1 exploratory well on the northern Kenai Peninsula.
The company, however, gave little indication of what the well found. Its Shadura prospect was regarded as a natural gas play.
The drill site was inside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, northeast of the Nikiski community and west of the Swanson River oil and gas unit. Cook Inlet Region Inc. owns the subsurface estate at the site.
NordAq laid down a nearly three-mile ice road to bring in the Marathon-owned Glacier 1 drilling rig.
“The Shadura No. 1 was a true wildcat well,” NordAq President Robert Warthen said in a press release. “It was not a step-out, re-drill, or new fault-block drilling location adjoining an existing field. The nearest wells providing subsurface geological control are several miles away, at the Swanson River and Beaver Creek fields. And, since an ice road supported this operation, weather played an important factor, as the longer daylight hours always threatened to soften the road and limit access.”
Warthen continued: “We are very pleased with our success at Shadura No. 1 and with the confirmation of our pre-drilling geological and geophysical models.”
The well was drilled to a total depth of 14,624 feet, the press release said.
“NordAq was able to drill and set casing to its permitted proposed total depth in a timely manner, after penetrating secondary and primary reservoir objective horizons. The drilling rig was demobilized, moved off location, and returned to Marathon on March 16.”
The well was suspended as of April 4, NordAq said.
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