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Marathon’s new mobile drilling rig working at Kenai gas field
Kristen Nelson
The purpose-built mobile drilling rig which Marathon Oil Co. ordered in early 1999 arrived in Alaska early this year and has been operational since mid-first quarter, Marathon Oil Co.’s Alaska operation superintendent, Bill Barron, told PNA July 17. He said the Glacier Rig No. 1, operated by a Marathon subsidiary, has so far done one workover, drilled one well and is in the process of drilling the second well.
The rig is being used in the Kenai gas field, he said, and will be used for both development and exploration wells.
“It’s been working — and working well,” Barron said, and has reduced drilling costs on the wells it’s been used on.
Technology focused on reducing costs In early 1999 John Barnes, Marathon’s Alaska region manager, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance that the company planned to use technology to find new reserves and to control costs in Cook Inlet. The company is using 3-D seismic to improve its internal view of the reservoir, he said, to unlock known gas in the tighter Kenai gas field Beluga formation. And, Barnes said, Marathon is looking at drilling smaller holes to reduce costs and environmental impacts. The purpose-build mobile drilling rig, he said, is expected to reduce costs, “greatly increasing the volume of economically developable gas reserves available to Marathon.”
Barnes said costs were expected to be reduced in three areas: mobilization and demobilization; improved operational efficiencies; and a smaller footprint.
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