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Drilling company moves unit to Alaska
Kay Cashman
Alaska’s newest drilling company, Aurora Well Service LLC, is having its first drilling unit shipped to Alaska, David L. Boelens, vice president of Aurora Power Resources Inc.’s Alaska operations told PNA June 26.
The truck-mounted drilling rig is coming from Wyoming, and is due to arrive in Seward July 7. From there, the Franks 300 Series well servicing unit will go to Peak Oilfield Service Co.’s yard in Nikiski where Aurora has other equipment stored.
Aurora Well Service is a joint venture between Boelens Well Service LLC of Thermopolis, Wyoming (two-thirds interest) and Scott Pfoff (one-third). Pfoff is president and CEO of Houston-based Aurora Power Resources and Anchorage-based Aurora Gas. In addition to doing completions, side-tracking and straight hole drilling at Aurora Gas’ Nicolai Creek gas field in west Cook Inlet, Boelens is going after other drilling work.
“In addition to completion work and side-tracks, this unit can drill shallow gas wells, top to bottom,” he said.
“We’ve contacted all the companies and invited them to take a look at the unit. … The pulling unit does not require a big crew,” Boelens said. “It takes a tool pusher overseeing it and four other people running the rig itself.” Camp open at Shirleyville Aurora Power (51 percent) and the Native Village of Tyonek (49 percent) partnered last year to build a 20-person camp for west Cook Inlet operations. That camp is now operating at Shirleyville, next to the Granite Point tank farm and runway, tribal administrator Angela D. Sandstol told PNA, and is also catering to customers outside its ownership group. Robert and Shirley Eckstrom’s restaurant and bar, purchased by Tyonek, has been remodeled for the camp and is now called “The Galley.”
Pfoff and Steve Severy, both formerly with Marathon Oil Co., started Aurora Gas, which became Aurora Power Resources, in 1994. Aurora Gas LLC was formed in 2000 and is jointly owned by Ed Jones and Andrew Clifford of Orion Resources and Aurora Power.
—Kay Cashman, PNA publisher
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