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Hilcorp busy onshore, offshore Cook Inlet
Company, largest oil and gas producer in Southcentral, has production from range of fields, small and large, onshore and offshore
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska became a producer in Southcentral in 2012 when it took over Chevron’s Cook Inlet oil and gas assets, later adding Marathon’s gas fields, a small field operated by XTO Energy and ConocoPhillips Alaska’s North Cook Inlet gas field. The company has fields on the west side of Cook Inlet, on the northern Kenai Peninsula, primarily in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, on the southern Kenai Peninsula and offshore, where it operates a majority of the platforms in Cook Inlet.
West side Hilcorp operates four gas fields on the west side of Cook Inlet, the large Beluga field, in which it holds a 33.33% working interest ownership, and three smaller fields - Ivan River, Lewis River and Pretty Creek - in which it has a 100% WIO.
Pretty Creek is not in production, although Hilcorp told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas that a 2020 regional study of the Sterling sands resulted in successful Sterling production at Ivan River and said the same sands have been correlated at Pretty Creek, with perforations in an existing well scheduled for 2021 and a potential sidetrack for the 2022-23 winter months.
Hilcorp has increased production from the Ivan River field and told the division in August that it had identified sufficient Sterling and Beluga formation reserves to justify a grassroots well in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The third of the small west side fields, Lewis River, is still under evaluation for delineation well opportunities, with no drilling planned in the current plan period.
At Beluga, Hilcorp plans to target the Tyonek gas formation in a well planned for the fourth quarter of the year in a farmout agreement with Chugach Electric Association, which holds a 66.67% working interest at Beluga and a 100% WIO at depths below 7,000 feet. Upon completion of the well, Hilcorp would acquire a 33.33% WIO below 7,000 feet, thus aligning ownership interests at all depths.
Northern Kenai Peninsula On the northern Kenai Peninsula Hilcorp operates four fields, including two of the Cook Inlet basin’s largest gas producers.
Beaver Creek, in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, the smallest, produces both oil and gas, and Hilcorp told the Bureau of Land Management work planned for 2021 includes a workover and evaluation of additional well repairs and workovers.
Swanson River, also in the KNWR, produces both oil and gas. The company told BLM it did a number of workovers under the 2020 plan.
Hilcorp said it reevaluated wells on the 2020 plug and abandon list and found them to have future production potential; it has no plans to P&A other Swanson wells at this time.
The company also said it has a new subsurface team in place for the 2021 plan and will continue to review the unit to identify remaining oil reserves.
The small Cannery Loop unit north of Kenai is on state acreage. In the 2020 POD period, the company reactivated Pad 3 to allow for maintaining and increasing production from the unit.
Hilcorp’s Kenai unit in the KNWR is currently Cook Inlet’s largest natural gas producer, accounting for almost 20% of inlet gas production. The company told BLM it drilled three grassroots wells during the 2020 POD period and converted 10 wells from shut-in to producing.
Southern Kenai Peninsula Hilcorp has one large gas field on the southern Kenai Peninsula and three small gas fields, one of which, Seaview, began production earlier this year.
At Ninilchik, the largest of the fields, and Cook Inlet’s second most prolific gas field, the company drilled three new wells during the 2020 POD, as well as numerous workovers and well work projects. Hilcorp said it has no plans for additional development wells at Ninilchik, but there are proposals for exploration/delineation wells: Pearl 2A from a new pad on private land outside the unit; a Blossom 1 sidetrack, likely in 2022 or 2023; and Abalone, a potential prospect just north of the Falls Creek participating area.
Deep Creek, southwest of Ninilchik, saw workovers in 2020. Hilcorp said it is evaluating drilling a well in the 2021 POD period, and said it continues to evaluate a Deep Creek exploratory drilling program, along with a rig workover and other well work, including evaluation of whether shut-in wells could be returned to service.
Hilcorp recently requested termination of the Nikolaevsk unit, and will continue to produce the single well, Red 1, as a tract operation.
Seaview at Anchor Point, Hilcorp’s newest field, began production from a single well in late May, with a second well completed in early August.
North of Seaview, Hilcorp has permitted the Whiskey Gulch 1, an oil and gas exploration well. Although Whiskey Gulch is outside the Seaview unit, Hilcorp said “results from the exploration well may trigger a Seaview Unit expansion to include the oil/and or gas bearing zones found in the Whiskey Gulch No. 1 well.”
Offshore Cook Inlet Hilcorp operates five units which produce from platforms in Cook Inlet.
The largest by oil production volume, the Trading Bay unit, includes the McArthur River and Trading Bay fields and produces both oil and gas. There are five platforms: Dolly Varden, Grayling, King Salmon, Monopod and Steelhead.
McArthur River is the inlet’s largest oil producer.
In the 2020 POD period, Hilcorp did two rig workovers at the TBU and 17 rig and non-rig wellwork projects. At McArthur River, no grassroots or sidetrack drilling is planned for the 2021 POD period, but Hilcorp said it plans various rig and non-rig well projects.
The company is working on a Trading Bay field study to identify additional opportunities for workovers and other well work.
At North Cook Inlet, one of the inlet’s largest natural gas producers, a field study identified four sidetrack well prospects.
Paul Mazzolini, drilling engineering advisor, told the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council in early September that the rig from the Spartan 151 jack-up was moved to the Tyonek platform and had completed one well and had a second in process with a third likely. AOGCC records show three sidetracks permitted at North Cook Inlet.
Granite Point produces from the Anna and Bruce platforms.
Hilcorp said in its 2021 POD that in the 2020 period it did workovers and for the 2021 will continue to evaluate additional rotary development wells. No grassroot wells are planned for 2021 but a sidetrack is anticipated.
Two inlet units are not currently producing. North Trading Bay last produced in 2005, and Hilcorp may drill it from outside the unit.
Middle Ground Shoal is down awaiting installation of a replacement fuel gas line following a leak in April.
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