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Forest Oil sells gas, plans more Alaska drilling in Cook Inlet region Company looking at drilling three to five tests of onshore prospects this year, based on rig availability Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Forest Oil has signed a gas sales contract on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, and plans to drill onshore later in the year.
The company said Aug. 9 that it has signed a two-year gas sales agreement with a local consumer to sell the gas from previously announced discoveries at West Foreland on the west side of Cook Inlet.
Craig Clark, Forest’s president and chief executive officer, told an analysts’ call Aug. 9 that the gas sales contract is for sales of 5 million cubic feet a day, with sales to begin in the fourth quarter. The well, he said, tested at 15 million cubic feet a day, so more gas is available for sale.
There was additional completion and testing of the Three Mile Creek discovery earlier in the year, he said. Forest has a 30 percent interest at Three Mile Creek; Aurora Gas has 70 percent and is the operator. This well will come online in late third quarter at 5 million a day gross, Clark said, after completion of the five-mile pipeline.
“And they plan two offsets, because they’ve not delineated that discovery because they wanted to get first sales. And their plan is to put that first well on, and delineate the discovery with two shallow wells, which I believe are between five and six thousand feet, and that’s pretty good gas at that shallow depth, so three to five million a day type wells I would think,” Clark said. Forest looking at onshore prospects In addition to participating in the Three Mile Creek wells, he said “three to five additional tests on other Forest acreage are planned by year-end, depending upon rig availability.” Clark said Forest has five onshore prospects in the Cook Inlet area, based on old drilling or new seismic or leasing. These are 5,000 foot to 13,000 foot targets, he said, and some of the prospects would involve deepening existing well bores.
Clark said Forest has about a million acres in Alaska, “most in the onshore Cook Inlet.”
David Keyte, Forest’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said Alaska production was some 40 million cubic feet equivalent a day in the second quarter, of total sales volumes for the company of 492 million cubic feet equivalent per day. Alaska is one of the areas where Forest expects to have production increases, Keyte said.
Forest is the operator at the Redoubt Shoal oil field in Cook Inlet and at the onshore west side West McArthur River field. Forest also holds a very small working interest in the Prudhoe Bay field on the North Slope.
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