Kitchen Lights field goes on line; gas production is now ramping up

Natural gas production from Furie Operating Alaska’s Kitchen Lights field, offshore in Cook Inlet, started on Nov. 22, Bruce Webb, Furie senior vice president, has told Petroleum News. Furie is selling its gas through an initial sales contract which will last until at least the end of the year - production will ramp up to 12 million cubic feet per day over the next month, Webb said in a Nov. 23 email. A gas supply agreement for 12.4 million cubic feet per day with Homer Electric Association comes into effect in April, he said.

Some of the initial gas production may be directed into the Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska facility near the city of Kenai, where Furie has contracted storage space, to keep gas in reserve to cover any periods of interruption in gas production from the offshore field. However, the company has a contract with Cook Inlet Energy through to the end of this year to provide gas for an initial storage reserve, Webb explained.

Initial gas production comes from the Kitchen Lights Unit No. 3 well, although Furie plans to drill an additional development well in 2016. (See story on page 1 of this issue of Petroleum News.) The subsea gas pipeline from the Julius R. platform, the offshore production platform for the Kitchen Lights field, has a throughput capacity of 100 million cubic feet per day, but Furie has yet to secure sufficient contracted gas sales to meet a targeted production level of 85 million cubic feet per day.

- ALAN BAILEY