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P&A work beginning on old Aurora wells
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
When Aurora Gas went bankrupt, it had 19 wells on the west side of Cook Inlet - and only six were purchased out of bankruptcy, by the company which became Amaroq.
Of the 13 not purchased, Commissioner Cathy Foerster of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner told legislators in March that 10 are on Cook Inlet Region Inc. land. Foerster said if the operator doesn’t plug and abandon a well, it becomes the responsibility of the landowner. In CIRI’s case, she said, when the original operator sold the CIRI leases to Aurora Gas, CIRI insisted the original operator retain the responsibility to P&A the wells, should Aurora Gas fail to do so.
Foerster said CIRI has pursued that obligation and the P&A work will be done, but the remaining three are on state land and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, as the landowner, is responsible to P&A.
Disposal injection approved P&A work on the wells has begun.
On Sept. 20, AOGCC approved an application for use of the Aspen No. 1 well for limited commercial water disposal, in connection with P&A work that Plugging Inlet LLC is doing on a number of west side wells.
In a Sept. 10 letter to the commission, George Pollock, a consultant for Plugging Inlet, said that company is the current operator of the Aspen No. 1 Class II disposal well and said the company proposes to inject Class II fluids - produced water and brine - generated by the legacy Aurora Gas LLC wells.
In a Sept. 20 approval letter, the commission said the requested administrative approval was for “limited duration, commercial disposal, water only injection” at the Aspen 1 well.
The commission put numerous conditions on the approval, including that it is only for waste fluids associated with the bankruptcy of Aurora and requirements to P&A those wells. AOGCC listed (in addition to the Aspen 1 disposal well): Lone Creek 1, 3 and 4; Kaloa 2; Moquawkie 1, 3 and 4; Simpco Moquawkie 1 and 2; Nicolai Creek 10, 11 and 129; and Three Mile Creek 2.
In its application Plugging Inc. lists Amaroq as the operator of the Nicolai Creek wells and Glacier as the operator of the Three Mile Creek well.
For the other listed wells, Plugging Inlet is the operator.
Plugging Inlet said it was requesting a limited duration approval - until completion of the P&A work or until Jan. 1, 2019.
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