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Gathering line complete at Three Mile Creek Aurora Gas asking for tight well spacing at west side Cook Inlet gas field based on discontinuous Beluga formation sands Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Aurora Gas and its partner Forest Oil have completed a gathering line at their Three Mile Creek natural gas field on the west side of Cook Inlet, Randy Jones, Aurora’s manager of land and negotiations, said Aug. 16.
Jones was testifying at an Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Three Mile Creek pool rules hearing. Aurora drilled the Three Mile Creek Unit No. 1 discovery well late last year. Four Beluga and Tyonek zones were tested in January, but the Tyonek zones were non-commercial and were plugged back. Combined Beluga sand intervals tested this spring had a flow rate of approximately 5 million cubic feet a day. (See stories on Three Mile Creek in the Aug. 14, July 31 and July 24 issues of Petroleum News.)
Jones said the Beluga sand reservoir Three Mile Creek is discontinuous, requiring closely spaced wells. Aurora has requested well spacing of approximately 60 acres, and noted in its pool rules application that well spacing in the Beluga River gas field varies between 40 and 80 acres per well, while Beluga formation gas wells in the Kenai gas field have well spacing of 48 to 56 acres per well.
The commission can permit closely spaced wells on an individual basis, or approve close well spacing as part of pool rules for the field. Aurora has applied for pool rules for Three Mile Creek, Jones said, because pool rules are more efficient than spacing exceptions, each of which takes six weeks to obtain. 2-D seismic shot at field Commissioner Dan Seamount asked how Aurora determined that the sands at Three Mile Creek were discontinuous. Jones said the determination was based on well and 2-D seismic data, which indicate the Beluga sands at the field are both discontinuous and lenticular.
Aurora drilled the Three Mile Creek No. 1 well beginning late last year and tested it beginning in January, with more work done earlier in the summer. The well is now hooked up to the gathering line, Jones said, and the two additional wells planned could be hooked up more quickly, since the gathering line is now in place.
Wells at Three Mile Creek will produce from multiple sands. Commissioner Cathy Foerster asked if the commingling of gas at the well would allow reservoir management, and Jones said all production was from the Tsuga interval in the Beluga sands, with each interval producing different amounts. Production began in mid-August from the shallower sands. Water in the well bore from January drilling damaged some of the lower sands, he said, and Aurora hopes those sands will clean up by themselves. If not, fracture stimulation would be required.
Chairman John Norman said the commission wanted as much data public as possible and asked Jones to review with commission staff how much of the company’s application could be made public.
He said that while Aurora’s application was generally very complete, if the application had been contested, the lack of a geologist to testify would have hurt the company’s case and asked that in the future Aurora have a geologist present to answer questions.
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