BLM to hold NPR-A lease sale in August 2010

Chevron permitting Birch Hill pads, road

Chevron Corp. subsidiary Union Oil Company of California is permitting development of natural gas resources at the Birch Hill unit. Birch Hill, also referred to as the North Swanson River satellite, is on the Kenai Peninsula. The company said in its plan of operations that while the plan addresses the development and production phases of the project, “the production phase will only occur if commercially viable quantities of hydrocarbons are discovered in the area.” Birch Hill has a shut-in Tyonek formation gas well. Planned work includes vegetation clearing and road construction in the fall and winter of 2009; well testing and drilling in the winter and spring of 2010; and facility construction in the spring and summer of 2010. The North Swanson River satellite includes the Birch Hill unit, a one-well field, and the land between Birch Hill and the Swanson River field boundaries. In addition to installation of a gravel access road and pipelines to tie the existing Birch Hill well into the Swanson River field, if reserves warrant a second pad location would be built along the right of way for drilling and production activities. See stories in Nov. 29 issue, available online at noon, Friday Nov. 27 at www.PetroleumNews.com