Ninilchik gas production, Kenai Kachemak Pipeline in startup mode

Petroleum News

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, natural gas producers Marathon Oil Co. and Union Oil Company of California are testing and beginning the process of startup at the Ninilchik gas field and the new Kenai Kachemak Pipeline connecting the Ninilchik field to the Kenai Peninsula gas pipeline system at the city of Kenai, Marathon Oil spokesman Paul Weeditz told Petroleum News Sept. 2.

An announcement of formal startup is not expected for another week, he said.

Marathon and Unocal are partners in both the Ninilchik field and KKPL.

Marathon and partner Unocal are testing production facilities and the common pipeline, “ensuring that everything is operating properly,” Weeditz said. The project is on track, but startup is a gradual process, he said.

“We’ve begun the process of first gas production from Ninilchik and deliveries through the new KKPL pipeline,” Weeditz said, with some gas actually moving through the pipeline. The reason behind the construction of the new 33-mile, 12-inch Kenai Kachemak Pipeline was to move natural gas from new fields being developed on the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula, including the Ninilchik discovery announced by the companies in early 2002.