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Whiskey Gulch gas facilities approved
Division of Oil and Gas OKs production facilities installation at Hilcorp's Whiskey Gulch Pad, location of 3 exploration wells
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska plans to install gas production facilities at its Whiskey Gulch Pad on the Kenai Peninsula east of the Sterling Highway and some 2.5 miles north of the Anchor Point Post Office. In a May 29 approval of the development phase of the Whiskey Gulch lease plan of operations, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas said the approval, along with that of other state and federal agencies, is necessary for Hilcorp to install gas production facilities on the pad.
In its April 9 application, Hilcorp said the proposed start date for the work was May 15, with work expected to be completed by the end of July. The company did not provide a date for first gas production. The company began drilling at Whiskey Gulch in 2019 with a series of stratigraphic tests which continued through 2024. Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records show that all of the stratigraphic tests have been plugged and abandoned.
Hilcorp also drilled three exploration wells, all from the Whiskey Gulch pad according to an illustration of included with the company's application: the Whiskey Gulch No. 1 completed in 2021 and Whiskey Gulch 14 and 15 both completed in 2024.
AOGCC data show Whiskey Gulch 14 and 15 remain confidential, but results from Whiskey Gulch 1 are available. Whiskey Gulch 1 had a total depth of 10,271 feet, with a true vertical depth of 9,332 feet, and was plugged back to a measured depth of 2,790 feet and a true vertical depth of 2,571 feet. The well reached the Hemlock formation at its original total depth before being plugged back to the Tyonek formation.
Results of a test reported to AOGCC show the WG1 flowed 4,877 thousand cubic feet over a 24-hour test on Feb. 19, 2022.
The WG1 and WG14 are described as single completion gas wells completed in the Whiskey Gulch undefined gas pool; the WG15 if shown as a single completion gas well completed in an unknown gas pool.
Facilities In its application, Hilcorp said facilities at the pad would include "subsurface piping and new infrastructure to produce gas to sales from the existing well(s) at Whiskey Gulch," with all work to occur on the existing pad.
It said the project area is accessible from the existing gravel pad and existing infrastructure will be used as available to support the project.
Included in the project are 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.
Installation will also include piping, valves and associated structural supports, along with heat trace, instrumentation cables, electrical cables, instrument, air and fuel gas lines.
Earlier work The Whiskey Gulch Pad was a 2021 project, with the 2.75-acre pad built on private surface lands at the end of Cape Ninilchik Avenue, about 1 mile east of the Sterling Highway.
Hilcorp said in 2021 that it planned one gas-only exploration well and one gas/oil exploration well at Whiskey Gulch into state oil and gas lease ADL 392666 to total depths of some 10,000 feet. The construction phase was projected to begin in March 2021, following by drilling and testing to begin about June 1 and possibly extend to early September.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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