Division OKs Cook Inlet Energy restarts

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas has approved, effective retroactively, plan of operation amendments by Cook Inlet Energy, a Glacier Oil and Gas company, to restart production at its two Cook Inlet fields, Redoubt and West McArthur River.

The division said CIE began preparations to restart production at the units in July.

At the Redoubt unit, production was resumed in September, at the West McArthur River unit in November.

Requests to resume oil and gas production activities at the two units were approved by the division in July.

Prior to resuming operations, the company did inspections and safety testing, the division said, “including wireline work, mechanical integrity testing on wells and pipelines, and extensive testing of both downhole equipment and surface infrastructure.” CIE also obtained approvals from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Production at the fields was suspended in May 2020 due to unfavorable economic conditions, David Pascal, chief operating officer at Glacier, told the division in the company’s July notification of restart for Redoubt.

Redoubt and West McArthur River were in warm standby from May to October 2020 and then went into cold standby status in October 2020.

The division said that prior to resuming production, “CIE inspected all necessary pipelines, facilities, modules, camps, and transitioned them from cold stack back to normal operations,” with power provided by diesel generators prior to gas turbines being available.

Redoubt produces from the Osprey Platform in Cook Inlet, West McArthur River from onshore on the west side.

- KRISTEN NELSON