Hilcorp drills grassroots wells at old Sterling gas pad on Kenai
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Kristen Nelson Petroleum News+
Hilcorp Alaska has drilled two grassroots wells at the old Sterling pad on the Kenai Peninsula, with gas from one of the wells initially showing up on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission production report for January. The Sterling pad is east/south-east of Kenai.
AOGCC data show the Sterling Unit 32-16 produced for three days in January, a total of 723 thousand cubic feet from the Sterling undefined gas pool.
The 32-16 well, one of two permitted in October, was spud in November and completed in mid-January, with AOGCC well data showing it as a single completion gas well on ADL 394294 and private fee land.
Hilcorp described the well as "an S-shaped directional grassroots development well."
"Reservoir analysis and subsurface mapping has identified an optimal location for infill development of the middle Beluga sands," the company said in describing plans for the well.
Formerly a federal unit Sterling was formerly a federal unit, formed in 1961. Hilcorp became the operator in 2013. The unit was terminated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2018, effective Dec. 15, 2017, based on lack of production.
The field last produced in April 2014.
In the 47th plan of development and operations for Sterling, filed in 2017, Hilcorp requested a suspension of unit production, and said the primary focus of activities under the POD were related to plugging and abandoning suspended wells "and initiating a process to contract the unit to only those leases that hold near-term development potential."
Hilcorp said Sterling was a legacy gas field that since 1962 had produced some 14.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Two producing wells at the field, SU 41-15RD and SU 32-09, went offline in 2014, Hilcorp said, and "subsequent remediation of the wells with eline and slickline efforts were unsuccessful in returning the field to production in 2016."
During the 2015 POD, Hilcorp said, federal leases at Sterling "were segregated to reflect applicable state, federal and Native Corporation ownership."
BLM waived administration of the unit, but Hilcorp said that as of 2017 the state had not accepted the role of unit manager, so the company would continue to recognize BLM as the unit manager.
The company said in 2017 that it "completed a field-wide study of the Tyonek, Beluga and Sterling formations. Based on technical and other confidential information available to Hilcorp, we have determined that although limited drilling/side track drilling opportunities may exist, such investments are not prudent under current economic conditions, particularly given the limited and seasonal naturel of the Cook Inlet gas market."
Primary focus for the 2017 POD was plugging and abandoning suspended well SU 23-15 and shut-in well SU 41-15RD.
Current drilling AOGCC drilling data show two Sterling wells permitted last October, the 32-16 -- now in production -- and the 43-10, spud in November and completed in early December but shown as suspended.
In a January application for sundry approvals, Hilcorp told the commission that the 43-10 targeted the Tyonek and Beluga sands. The Tyonek sands were perforated but tested only wet sands or sands with no permeability or gas.
Hilcorp requested permission to perforate and test the Beluga sands, a request approved in early February.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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