Beaver Creek field shut in following Kenai Peninsula fire

Kristen Nelson

Marathon Oil Co. and state officials are investigating the cause of a Nov. 30 fire which destroyed two storage tanks and a well house and caused a gas leak at Marathon’s Beaver Creek A-1 well on the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska Nov. 30. The Beaver Creek field is shut down as a result of the fire.

The tanks stored produced water and natural gas condensate, fluids which Marathon believes were contained by berms on the A-1 pad, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Spill Prevention and Response said in a report on the incident. The division said the Kenai Fire Department responded to the fire which began at 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and had it extinguished at 8 p.m. The division said there were no injuries but there was extensive equipment damage.

Houston-based Marathon spokeswoman Susan Richardson told Petroleum News that equipment at the pad will need to be removed and replaced before production can be resumed.

The division reported that Marathon brought in two well control experts from Wild Well Control Inc. in Houston and a 6 percent potassium chloride solution was pumped into the well, reducing pressure at the wellhead to zero Dec. 3.

Richardson said all those concerned, including DEC and agencies in the unified command, Marathon and others working on the well, thought the well had been killed, but by the next day, Saturday Dec. 4, pressure had built back up, so the “kill” procedure had to be repeated. Ultimately it took until Monday, Dec. 6, before there was no longer pressure build-up in the well and Marathon was able to replace the tree.

“The leak of natural gas from the 1-A well at Beaver Creek was successfully stopped today,” Richardson said Dec. 6.

She said that once the leak was stopped it is now safe to go into the site and investigate the cause of the fire.

The field remains shut down.

“We hold 100 percent interest in the Beaver Creek field which produces approximately 200 barrels of oil per day and 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. And production is currently shut in.” Richardson said Marathon is meeting its natural gas contract obligations from its other production in Cook Inlet.