Doyon submits revised seismic application

Doyon Ltd. has submitted a revised permit application to Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas for a proposed 2-D seismic survey in the Nenana basin in the Alaska Interior, about 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks. The survey would take place between January and March 2012, primarily on state land within the area of a state exploration license that Doyon holds.

A partnership consisting of Doyon, Rampart Energy Co., Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Usibelli Energy LLC and Cedar Creek Oil & Gas Co. has been conducting an exploration program in the Nenana basin for several years, seeking natural gas and possibly oil. In 2009 the partnership drilled the 11,000-foot Nunivak No. 1 gas exploration well near Nenana but that well did not encounter an economic gas accumulation. It is not yet clear whether all of the partners will participate with Doyon in the new survey.

There is no existing seismic data for the more northerly part of the basin where Doyon plans its survey, although gravity and magnetic data indicate that the basin reaches its broadest and deepest extent in the north.

The partnership exploring the Nenana basin conducted seismic surveys in the more southerly part of the basin in 2004 and 2005, using vibrator vehicles to source the seismic sound signals. However, given the potential problems of operating vibrator vehicles in the wet land, studded with lakes, in the northern basin area, the planned new survey will use deeply buried dynamite charges as sound sources, James Mery, Doyon senior vice president, lands and natural resources, told Petroleum News Aug. 31. The mulching of vegetation required to operate vibrator vehicles would also be problematic in the Minto Flats State Game Refuge that straddles the northern basin, he said.

—Alan Bailey