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Cook Inlet Energy plans more gas wells Anchorage-based firm to spud exploratory well soon at Olsen Creek prospect; fracking operation conducted at neighboring Otter Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Cook Inlet Energy LLC is aiming to spud an exploratory well by mid-December at its Olsen Creek natural gas prospect on the inlet’s west side.
David Hall, chief executive of the Anchorage-based company, said the Olsen Creek gas structure has “strong potential.”
In recent months, the company has been upgrading and extending the road system to the prospect, and hopes to start construction soon on the well pad, Hall said.
He made the comments during an Oct. 30 conference call for investors in Miller Energy Resources Inc., the Tennessee-based parent company of Cook Inlet Energy.
Potential 84 bcf field Olsen Creek is among a number of shallow gas prospects Cook Inlet Energy has on the west side. The Olsen Creek prospect is west of the ConocoPhillips-operated Beluga River gas field.
The initial well will evaluate the Olsen Creek structure, Hall said.
“If successful, we see the potential for 24 wells on our leases,” he said.
The company estimates a potential for each well of up to 3.5 billion cubic feet of gas, with a potential reservoir size for the field of about 84 bcf, Hall said.
Olsen Creek’s oil potential also is being evaluated, he said.
The company is using its own rig 34 to drill the gas prospects. The truck-mounted Atlas Copco RD20 rig was brought up from Tennessee and extensively modified for work in Alaska.
The Otter prospect About seven miles northeast of Olsen Creek is the Otter prospect, where Cook Inlet Energy this year drilled the Otter No. 1 exploratory well.
Recently the company conducted a hydraulic fracturing operation on Otter No. 1, using more than 800 barrels of proppant, Hall said.
Now the trick is removing the fracking fluid, which is believed to be keeping the formation gas from entering the wellbore, he said.
“Currently, we are recovering portions of the frack fluid as the well releases it,” Hall said. “We have recovered 150 barrels to date. We’re still very optimistic about Otter and will continue trying to bring it online once we recover the frack fluids.”
Hall noted that while drilling Otter, mud pump problems forced a halt to the drilling at about 5,600 feet on a well planned for a depth of 7,000 feet, Hall said.
As a result, only a short section of the Beluga formation and none of the Tyonek formation were evaluated, he said.
New, more robust mud pumps have been purchased for installation on rig 34, and the company is planning a second Otter well to a minimum depth of 7,500 feet, which should yield more potential gas pay zones for evaluation, Hall said.
Cook Inlet Energy also operates the West McArthur River oil field and the offshore Redoubt unit with the Osprey platform.
During the Miller Energy investor conference call, executives said the company’s total Alaska oil production was running between 1,400 and 1,450 barrels a day.
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