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Evergreen finishes drilling Mat-Su pilot projects Coal seams in the Cook Inlet basin could contain several trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to double existing reserves, company says Steve Sutherlin PNA Managing Editor
Less than 30 days from the Oct. 28 spud of its first well in its Pioneer unit, the Alaska subsidiary of Evergreen Resources Inc. has finished drilling its eighth and final well in its two-pilot, shallow gas, exploration project.
The 70,000 acre Pioneer unit is 30 miles north of Anchorage between Wasilla and Houston in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Evergreen President and CEO Mark Sexton told PNA Nov. 20, prior to drilling the eighth well, that the first seven wells are 2,600 to 3,700 feet deep and contain 80 to 100 feet of coal seam.
“That’s plenty to work with,” he said.
The eight wells are situated in groups of four to test the ability of the local coal to produce gas. Interference from one well to the next actually enhances coalbed methane production, Sexton said.
The wells were drilled with Evergreen’s D.L. Smith No. 1 rig.
After completion, the wells are cemented and cased; then the company hydro fractures the wells several hundred feet outward from the bore using nitro gel foam under high pressure, Sexton said. After hydro fracture, sand is injected into the cracks as a proppant, using the nitro gel foam as a medium.
Typically, coalbed methane wells produce as much as 95 percent water to 5 percent gas at first, but that ratio can reverse in five years to a level of 95 percent gas and 5 percent water, he said. The methane, after dewatering, is generally quite pure.
“It could easily be pipeline quality gas coming right from the well head,” Sexton said. “It’s the leanest, cleanest form of methane.”
No flies on them The Pioneer test project will set the company back $6 million this winter, Sexton said. The company plans to spend $10 million in Alaska next year.
Evergreen has moved its own drill rig to jobs in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Raton basin of Colorado and now Alaska, because it can control the pace of drilling, and the rig works fast. The air hammer drill can bore 100 feet per hour, and Evergreen crews typically complete each well within 48 hours.
“It’s very cost effective for us to own our own equipment,” Sexton said. Coalbed methane production requires a lot of wells. Evergreen has drilled more than 900 wells on its 200,000-acre Raton Basin property and has identified 800 additional drilling locations there. If the Pioneer field proves up, it will have a 20 to 30 year production life and could likely employ as many as 500 people, including contractors, Sexton said.
Permitting reform critical Enstar has a pipeline a few miles south of Pioneer, he said.
“Enstar would be happy to take quite a bit of gas tomorrow if we could produce it,” Sexton said. Coal seams in the Cook Inlet basin could contain several trillion cubic feet of gas, enough to double existing reserves in the basin, according to Jack Ekstrom, Evergreen director of government and public affairs. The catch? Permitting reform is needed to efficiently produce the area’s unconventional gas, Ekstrom said. Alaska’s rules are for deep oil wells, overkill for the company’s water-well type rig.
“It’s equivalent to regulating a pickup truck the same way you do 18-wheelers on highways,” he said.
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