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Four gas wells online at Kitchen Lights but field still shut-in
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
In a recent Enstar Natural Gas Co. filing with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska regarding Furie Operating Alaska’s problems in delivering gas from its Kitchen Lights gas field in the Cook Inlet, Enstar included an Oct. 31 report from Furie to Enstar on the results of its development drilling in the field during last year’s drilling season - Enstar has a gas supply agreement with Furie. The report confirms that Furie has now completed four production wells in the field.
However, the field remains out of action as a consequence of gas hydrates blocking the subsea pipeline that delivers gas from the offshore Julius R. platform to onshore processing facilities on the Kenai Peninsula - Enstar told Petroleum News on Feb. 27 that it is still not receiving any gas from Furie. As previously reported in Petroleum News, Furie has not delivered any gas to Enstar since Jan. 25. Enstar has issued a default notice to the gas producer, indicating that the gas supply agreement with Furie would be terminated if the supply problem is not resolved.
On Feb. 20 Furie indicated to Petroleum News that it anticipated being able to restart Kitchen Lights production shortly.
Four wells completed During the 2018 drilling season Furie re-entered and completed the KLU A-1 development well and drilled an additional development well, the KLU No. 4. The result is that the company now has four wells capable of gas production.
According to Furie’s report to Enstar the eventual drilling success in 2018 came after some drilling issues that had pushed the drilling program right to the end of the drilling season. Furie reported that it had also gone beyond its commitments in its development plan by drilling an “exploration tail” from the A-4 well, into the Tyonek formation, below the Beluga formation, from which gas production is to come. It appears from the report that, although the drilling into the Tyonek was completed, the findings in the Tyonek proved disappointing.
However, as a consequence of the drilling and of the optimization of production from the two other Kitchen Lights production wells, Furie will be able to meet the demand specified in the company’s gas supply agreement, Furie’s report said. And the company said that it remains committed to expanding the gas reserves potential within the Kitchen Lights unit. Following the 2018 drilling program, production from the field should peak at about 40 million cubic feet per day. However, a projected relatively rapid well production decline rate means that a continuing drilling program, as specified in the latest plan of development for the field, will be needed to maintain adequate gas deliverability. The plan includes drilling an additional development well and conducting workover operations on up to two of the existing wells, Furie told Enstar.
Excess water from Sterling Although the recent drilling added incremental gas reserves from both the Sterling and Beluga formations, Furie has not yet resolved problems associated with excessive water production from the Sterling. Failure to deal with these problems would impact Sterling gas reserves data. However, Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska is assisting the company to address the underperformance of Sterling well completions. And production from a single interval in the Sterling in the KLU A4 well shows some promise, with a production rate of 10 million cubic feet per day and no measurable water, Furie reported.
Meanwhile, the company continues develop and produce from the Beluga formation, Furie said.
However, given the pipeline blockage that occurred after Furie made its report, continuing production at the field will clearly depend on the company resolving its current gas delivery problems.
- ALAN BAILEY
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