Tyonek pool definition for Beaver Creek

Hilcorp wants Tyonek added to existing Sterling, Beluga gas pools in field rules; has also applied to BLM for participating area

KRISTEN NELSON

Petroleum News

Hilcorp Alaska LLC has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for definition of the Tyonek gas pool at the Beaver Creek unit. The commission has tentatively scheduled a public hearing on the application for 9 a.m. March 29 at its Anchorage offices, but said if there is no request for a hearing, the commission may consider issuing an order without a hearing. Written requests for a hearing are due March 8. The commission said it will accept written comments on the application through March 23, unless a hearing is held, in which case written comments will be accepted through the conclusion of the March 29 hearing.

Hilcorp said in its application that it has also submitted a proposal to the federal Bureau of Land Management to establish a new Tyonek gas participating area to accommodate production from the Tyonek gas pool.

The 3,680-acre Beaver Creek unit is in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge some 11 miles northeast of Kenai, on land held by the federal government and Cook Inlet Region Inc. BLM is the unit manager of the four-lease unit. Hilcorp said in its application to the commission that there are no other affected owners, landowners or operators.

Unit formation at Beaver Creek was in 1967, with initial gas production from the Sterling and upper Tyonek and oil production from the lower Tyonek.

The commission established pool rules for the Sterling and Beluga gas sands in 1988, when Marathon Oil Co. was the Beaver Creek operator.

The commission authorized the vertical expansion of the Beluga gas pool in 2014 and later that year removed intra-field well spacing requirements for the Sterling and Beluga gas pools.

The Sterling gas pool is defined in the commission’s existing conservation order, No. 237A, as the accumulation of gas common to and correlating with the accumulation present between measured depths of 5,188 feet and 6,370 feet in the Beaver Creek unit No. 1A well. The Beluga gas pool definition is based on the same well and is defined as the accumulation between 6,370 feet and 9,650 feet measured depth.

The Beaver Creek oil pool is defined as oil correlating to Beaver Creek unit well No. 4 between the measured depths of 14,518 and 15,874 feet.

Hilcorp is requesting the addition of a Tyonek gas pool definition as the accumulation common to and correlating with the accumulation in the Beaver Creek unit No. 4 well between measured depths of 8,886 feet and 14,518 feet. Hilcorp said the 8,886-foot marker in the No. 4 well is equivalent to a 9,650-foot measured depth in the No. 1A well.

Requested changes to well spacing rules include adding the Tyonek gas pool to the rule providing for no restrictions on gas well spacing in the field “except that no pay shall be opened in a well within 1,500 feet from the exterior boundary of the Beaver Creek unit where owners and landowners are not the same on both sides of the line.”

Well spacing for the Beaver Creek oil pool is set in the commission’s order as 40 acres, with no wellbore to be opened nearer than 660 feet from the nearest open wellbore in the same pool, and no wellbore opened nearer than 500 feet from the exterior boundary of the unit where owners and landowners are not the same on both sides of the line.