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NIMBY concerns over gas storage plans Surface leaseholder at Cannery Loop expresses safety concerns to AOGCC; has been granted conditional intervenor status at RCA Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Not in my backyard — or at least not under my fish processing plant — has come to Kenai, the home of Alaska’s modern oil and gas industry.
Vincent Goddard, president of Inlet Fish Producers of Kenai, told the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in an Oct. 19 and 20 hearing that he has safety concerns about the proposal by Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska to use a portion of the Cannery Loop unit south of Kenai for natural gas storage.
Goddard’s facilities are on land leased from the City of Kenai in the vicinity of Cannery Loop and there is a 1964 well — drilled, plugged and abandoned in that year — on the property he leases.
AOGCC is considering applications from CINGSA for the gas storage facility.
CINGSA also has an application for the facility before the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and on Oct. 19 RCA granted Goddard’s petition to intervene in that proceeding conditioned upon Goddard retaining counsel within five days.
Suite of concerns Goddard challenged the Cannery Loop proposal on a number of grounds, including seismic concerns, the condition of wells in the Cannery Loop field and the proximity of the field to Kenai.
Richard Gentges of CINGSA told AOGCC Commissioner Cathy Foerster that no impacts are expected to Kenai once the storage facility is in operation, but said there will be traffic management issues because of heavy equipment required during construction.
On the seismic issue, Tom Walsh of Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska — PRA prepared expert testimony on the proposal under contract to CINGSA — told the commission there are no active faults in the area. He said the Cannery Loop fault, south of the unit, does not extend to the surface and is no longer active.
A report on geologic and seismic hazards in the area prepared for CINGSA by URS said ground-motion hazard in the area is consistent with most of Cook Inlet but less than in the Anchorage and Susitna Valley areas, and similar to U.S. Geological Survey estimates of ground motion hazards for western Washington, western Oregon and southern California — all areas with underground gas storage facilities.
There are no specific seismic design criteria for oil and gas wells in Alaska or other western states with high seismic hazard risk, and properly constructed wells should not be affected by ground shaking since casing is cemented to the rock and overlying soils and will move with the soil or rock, URS said. The report also noted that surface structures are built to Alaska Building Code standards for seismic design.
Condition of wells CINGSA has identified Cannery Loop wells which will require remedial work as part of project development, but Gentges told the commission that detailed engineering results for the KU 13-8 well (the P&A well on the Inlet Fish Producers lease) confirm that the well is adequately plugged and there is no need to re-enter it. He said that if the commission wants the well re-entered and re-plugged, CINGSA will do so.
A detailed report on the well indicates the wellhead is buried under an asphalt driveway between two buildings on the site, so excavation of an area approximately 8 feet by 8 feet would be required to access the wellhead.
Marathon is the operator at Cannery Loop and Gentges told the commission CINGSA will be working with Marathon on a collaborative basis to acquire Marathon’s interest in the Sterling C pool, which is the portion of the Cannery Loop unit which will be used for storage.
Record held open for a week The commission heard Goddard’s testimony as a member of the public and accepted his witness, petroleum engineer John Robertson Jr. of Fallbrook, Calif., as an expert witness.
Robertson told the commission he believes all wells at Cannery Loop need to be recompleted because they can serve as a pathway from the reservoir to the surface.
When Robertson said gas at the field likely migrated up from below and was captured in the Sterling C reservoir, Commission Chair Dan Seamount, the AOGCC’s geology member, told him that gas in Cook Inlet is biogenic — sourced from coals — rather than migrating up from a deeper source.
Robertson showed a map of Cannery Loop showing the field under and adjacent to the Kenai River where it loops south of Kenai before entering Cook Inlet, but questioned the basis for showing the field entirely south of the City of Kenai and questioned whether it didn’t also reach under residential areas, asking for data to back up field extent.
In responses to a number of questions from Goddard, Gentges acknowledged an error he made in referring to the nearest active fault to Cannery Loop as being 40 miles away — he said he confused kilometers and miles and that the 40 is kilometers, not miles.
Goddard told the commission there were a number of faults, one running through Cannery Loop.
Gentges said it is necessary to distinguish active faults. The Castle Mountain fault, he said, is the only active fault in upper Cook Inlet and there is no fault running through Cannery Loop.
Data used in PRA’s presentation was all from public sources, Walsh said, with structure maps from commission records for conservation order 231 for the Cannery Loop unit, and based on proprietary seismic data from the field operator.
Goddard and Robertson wanted the record held open and the commission agreed to do so for a week to allow any additional written submissions; the oral testimony record was closed at the end of the Oct. 20 hearing.
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