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Forcenergy plans new exploration well at West Forelands Project southwest of company’s West McArthur River unit pad; will connect to West Forelands well pad by gravel road Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
Forcenergy Inc. plans to drill an exploration well at its Tomcat exploration prospect on the southern end of the West Forelands on the western side of Cook Inlet later this year, southwest of present Forcenergy production in the area. The company began permitting the project last fall and it is now out for public comment.
Construction of road access and the drill site are scheduled for June and July; the well will be drilled and tested August through October.
The prospect is on the south side of West Forelands in the vicinity of the former Native community of Kustatan and about three miles southwest of the West McArthur River unit pad. The company said in its applications that as many as four onshore oil and gas exploration wells may be drilled. The current application is for only one well.
A 3.5 mile access road will be constructed primarily within Native lands and will run southerly from the 1 West Forelands well site.
Gravel will be obtained from local gravel sources.
The facility will consist of equipment associated with an exploratory drill rig including five diesel-electric generators, two rig boilers, a rig heater, a well test flare and two fuel storage tanks.
Road system extension A road exists from the Trading Bay production facility to Forcenergy’s West McArthur River drill site on the northeast side of the West Forelands and the company said it is already building, under other permits, a road to the 1 West Forelands drill pad midway down the forelands.
The proposed drill site and a portion of the access road will be on lands purchased by Forcenergy; access will be primarily on Salamatof Native Corp. lands.
Forcenergy produces oil from the West McArthur River field which lies offshore of the West Forelands some five miles to the northeast of Tomcat, which will be drilled from a surface location in the northwest one-quarter of 9-7N-14W,SM. The 1 West Forelands well, some three miles to the northeast, is a gas well.
There are half a dozen Kustatan-named exploration wells within a few miles of the Tomcat project, five drilled in the 1960s and one in 1992: The 1 Kustatan, completed in June 1996 by Chevron, was drilled from a surface location in 18-8N-13W,SM, to an MD of 11,852 feet and a TVD of 11,504 feet.
State oil and gas lease acreage on and around the West Forelands is owned principally by Forcenergy and by a 50-50 partnership of Forcenergy and Unocal Alaska Resources. The Tomcat well pad will be in state oil and gas lease ADL 387023, in which Forcenergy has 100 percent working interest.
In its application Forcenergy described the Tomcat area as including: 4,9-7N-14W,SM, and 21,28,33-8N-14W,SM.
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