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Vision files 58th POD for North Fork unit
Additional drilling will depend on ‘favorable economic conditions, rig availability, costs of steel, services and gas prices’ Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On Dec. 21 North Fork unit operator Vision Operating filed the unit’s 58th plan of development with Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas. The unit is onshore on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
The 58th plan of development, or POD, covers the period from April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024.
North Fork was first brought online in 2011 by a Bill Armstrong joint venture, even though the field was first unitized by Standard Oil Co. of California in 1965.
Bob Gardes of Lafayette, Louisiana, entered Alaska in September 2020, acquiring the 2,602-acre North Fork unit, which produces from a single participating area and is one of Cook Inlet’s smaller gas fields.
“There is a lot of bypassed gas here because the deposits weren’t big enough” for companies to bother with them,” Gardes told Petroleum News at the time.
On May 1, 2021, Gardes-owned Vision Operating took over as operator of the North Fork unit, which consists of five state leases that are held by another Gardes company, Vision Resources.
At a December 2021 Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hearing Vision Operating President Stephen Hennigan said the company has identified as many as 23 natural gas prospects in the area.
While Gardes, per its website, is “currently negotiating” additional “potential acquisitions in the Cook Inlet region,” its operations crew on the ground has had its attention focused on enhancing production from North Fork.
Work for 58th POD In its Dec. 21 POD application, Vision Operating committed to the following long-range proposed development activities for the unit, including plans to delineate all underlying oil or gas reservoirs, bring the reservoirs into production, and maintain and enhance production once established.
Vision also plans to enhance and extend production from currently producing wells through well and infrastructure improvements. These improvements include workovers and conversion of a disposal well.
Vision said it intends to continue a comprehensive geo-technical assessment of technical data in the Middle and Lower Tyonek, which includes but is not limited to the review and study of well histories, petrophysical data, geological data, geophysical data and engineering data for the purposes of qualifying the potential of developing future reserves in the existing wells of the North Fork unit, as well as the acreage within the participating area, or PA.
Vision said it intends to continue monitoring and analyzing production from its existing North Fork wells and will optimize production accordingly. This will include monitoring water volumes and if necessary, initiating re-completions within current wells.
Furthermore, “as appropriate, based on data review and market conditions, Vision proposes to continue a development drilling program to fully delineate and develop all fault blocks within the current unit.”
In addition, Vision will continue to evaluate the possibility of drilling wells outside of the current boundaries of the North Fork Gas Pool 1 PA.
Vision intends to include a technical presentation to the Division of Oil and Gas to update its progress towards evaluating and assessing lands outside of the PA
Based upon the geo-technical work completed by Vision, the company has submitted an application to expand the existing PA. This application is currently pending.
Depends on economic conditions Vision said it will continue to “seek opportunities for production improvements through additional zones, repositioning sliding sleeves, and setting plugs as necessary to control water intrusion.”
However, the company said, “additional drilling will depend on favorable economic conditions, rig availability, costs of steel, services and gas prices.”
Finally, Vision plans do not include any additional permanent facilities at this time.
The Dec. 21 POD application was addressed to Derek Nottingham, director of the Division of Oil and Gas, and it was signed by Vision Operating Vice President Mark Landt.
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