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Hilcorp applies for Whiskey Gulch line
Gas pipeline would connect pad with Enstar system less than a mile to the west, allowing production from 3 wells on existing pad
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska has applied for a lease plan of operations amendment to install a gas production pipeline on the existing Whiskey Gulch Pad near Anchor Point to connect existing production to the Enstar natural gas transmission pipeline.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas said in an Aug. 6 public notice that the company is proposing a 6-inch natural gas pipeline using both trenching and horizontal directional drilling methods. Comments on the application are due by 4:30 p.m. Sept. 5.
In its Aug. 1 application the company said the pipeline would connect the Whiskey Gulch Pad and road, constructed in 2021, with production facilities scheduled for installation this year.
The division approved installation of gas production facilities at Whiskey Gulch on May 29. The pad is on the Kenai Peninsula east of the Sterling Highway some 2.5 miles north of the Anchor Point Post Office. The production facilities work was scheduled for May through the end of July and includes installation of an enclosed separator package, a 200-barrel produced water tank, an enclosed compressor package, an enclosed glycol dehydration package, a control building and a utility building. On pad work also includes piping, valves and associated structural support, along with heat trace, instrumentation cables, electrical cables, instrument, air and fuel gas lines.
Pipeline In its application Hilcorp said commissioning Whiskey Gulch would require completion of the installation of gas production facilities on the pad and construction of the new pipeline to support gas production from Whiskey Gulch.
The proposed schedule for pipeline installation is Aug. 25 through Oct. 1.
The buried 6-inch line will originate at the northeast corner of the Whiskey Gulch Pad and run westward to connect with the Enstar system. The line from Whiskey Gulch will use both trenching and horizontal directional drilling, avoiding wetlands by employing horizontal directional drilling where necessary.
A map illustrating the pipeline's route indicates a total length of 4,002 feet.
Earlier work Drilling began at Whiskey Gulch in 2019 with a series of stratigraphic wells, work which continued through 2024. Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records show all the stratigraphic test wells as plugged and abandoned.
Hilcorp also drilled three exploration wells: Whiskey Gulch No. 1 was completed in 2021; Whiskey Gulch 14 and 15 were both completed in 2024. Whiskey Gulch 1 flowed 4,877 thousand cubic feet over a 24-hour test in February 2022. Results of Whiskey Gulch 14 and 15 are confidential, but AOGCC records show them at single completion gas wells; WG1 and WG14 are shown as single completion gas wells completed in the Whiskey Gulch undefined gas pool; WG15 is shown as a single completion gas well completed in an unknown gas pool.
The 2.75-acre Whiskey Gulch pad was built in 2021 on private surface lands at the end of Cape Ninilchik Avenue about 1 mile east of the Sterling Highway.
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