Evergreen Resources starts drilling first Mat-Su shallow gas well

Kay Cashman, PNA publisher

Evergreen Resources Inc. President and CEO Mark Sexton told PNA that the company’s Alaska subsidiary spud its first shallow gas well in the Cook Inlet Basin’s Pioneer unit late in the afternoon of Oct. 28. The well is part of an eight-well exploration project to test the ability of coals in the unit to produce gas. The unit is 30 miles north of Anchorage between Wasilla and Houston in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

“We’ve spent much of the month October building locations and cementing conductor pipe. We will start continuous drilling for an eight-well program Oct. 28” and “expect drilling for to be complete for the most part by the end of November, early December. These wells, once properly set, will drill quickly,” Sexton said.

Evergreen said the wells will be drilled, completed and tested in two pilot areas, each area laid out with one well in the center, and the other wells 1,000 feet to the north, southeast and southwest of the central wells. The first group of wells being drilled is referred to as pilot group two in state paperwork and are on state oil and gas lease ADL 384685 east of Houston. Named after early Alaska explorers, the first well to be drilled will be Baranof No. 4.

The second group of four wells to be drilled is pilot number one. They will be drilled immediately after the first four wells and are on fee acreage and state of Alaska oil and gas lease ADL 374121 south of Houston. When the company acquired the Pioneer unit May 9, 2001, from Ocean Energy and Unocal, it said the unit’s coal seams may hold unrisked recoverable gas reserves of up to 500 billion cubic feet of gas.