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Teck Cominco drilling gas exploration wells on NANA Regional Corp. lands
Teck Cominco Alaska permitted two exploratory natural gas wells on NANA Regional Corp. lands near the Red Dog mine in Northwestern Alaska in July, and the company told Petroleum News Aug. 29 that the wells have been drilled and are being tested.
Teck Cominco also has four state shallow natural gas leases near Red Dog, and the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas extended the term of those leases by three years in October 2003.
Division Director Mark Myers said in the 2003 decision that the lease extension was “based upon the exploration activity already conducted on the leased and adjacent areas, and the likely prospect of further exploration activities and possible development and production.” The division said the exploration plan Teck Cominco submitted with the application for lease extension was being kept confidential at the company’s request. Natural gas would replace diesel A Teck Cominco official told Petroleum News in mid-2003 that some of the shallow gas targets identified by past mineral prospecting are about a mile from the mine and mill complex, while other are within a 10-mile radius of the mine. Teck Cominco would like to use natural gas to replace 18 million gallons of diesel used at the mill each year.
A 2002 report on results from a mineral coring rig working in the vicinity of the mine, exploring for extensions of the known zinc ore body, said drillers and geologists “noticed the core is popping and snapping and cracking — and that’s audible gas.”
Teck Cominco explored for gas in conjunction with mineral exploration from 1998 to 2000, doing core sampling and logging.
The natural gas resource at Red Dog is shale gas from the Kuna formation.
A geologist with shale experience looked at the wells in 2001 and recommended completions and tests, and over a four-year program some 200 gas content analyses were collected and eight whole geophysical logging sets run, and an estimate of 2 trillion cubic feet of shale gas made.
An estimated 60 billion cubic feet over 20 years would be required to replace the diesel, and the estimate in 2002 was that 40 to 60 wells would be required.
The just completed wells are the NB 01 and NB 02, the first in section 18, township 13 north, range 18 west, Kateel Meridian, the second in section 17, T13N, R18W, KM. Both were proposed as vertical holes.
—Kristen Nelson
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