Marathon to drill from Kasilof pad

Kristen Nelson, Petroleum News editor-in-chief

Marathon Oil has submitted a plan of operations for two gas exploration wells approximately 4.1 miles north of the Sterling Highway on south Cohoe Loop Road at the Kasilof pad between Kenai and Clam Gulch on the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska. The pad, in the SW 1/4 SW 1/4 of section 28, township 3 north, range 12 west, Seward Meridian, is jointly owned by Marathon and Unocal. Two exploratory wells were drilled from the pad in 1964 and plugged and abandoned.

Marathon said it is proposing two exploration gas wells into the Kasilof structure to test for commercial quantities of natural gas. The first well will be completed and tested in one or more intervals, then the lateral will be drilled and tested.

“The intent is to have two separate subsurface completions capable of producing natural gas from this part of the Kasilof structure,” Marathon told the state.

The proposed wells, the Kasilof South No. 1 and the Kasilof South No. 1L1, a lateral, will be drilled to two separate structural targets offshore using extended reach drilling techniques, Marathon told the state.

The company said extended reach wells will be drilled to two separate structural targets offshore. The first well and lateral sidetrack will test a portion of the Kasilof structure to the south and west. Based on initial test results, future drilling will target a separate structure to the north and west.

The state approved a unit at Kasilof in October and required Marathon to begin drilling the first exploration well in the unit this year or shoot 3-D seismic over the unit and drill a first well next year.

Marathon said a drilling rig will be mobilized in late September and drilling will begin by Oct. 1 and last about four months.