Four seismic, geochemical projects under way or proposed in Cook Inlet

Kristen Nelson

Four Cook Inlet seismic or geochemical projects are on the state’s books in stages ranging from approved to proposed consistency determination issued to first discussions.

WesternGeco received a proposed consistency determination (with the Alaska Coastal Management Program) Sept. 26 for a three-dimensional seismic program in the Sterling area. This is a 36 square mile program for Marathon Oil Co. on federal, state, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Native and private parcels.

Source point drilling will be done in October and November with helicopter portable seismic drills. Recording operations will be done in February and March.

Pangaea Geochemical Technologies will be doing a surface geochemistry soil vapor survey in the North Fork area on the southern Kenai Peninsula for Unocal Alaska Resources through the end of October. Two two-man teams will collect 350-500 one liter soil vapor samples using a probing devise mounted on a modified all-terrain vehicle and a small pump to lift the soil vapor sample to the surface. The ATV will use existing paths, cut lines, etc., Unocal told the state, and expects to collect 80 percent of the samples with the ATV. Any areas not accessible by path or line will be collected by the field crew using a hand-transported, hand-powered probing devise.

One-inch by four-foot hollow steel rods are hammered four to eight feet below ground level and soil vapor removed using a vacuum pump.

Projects in the planning stage include an onshore and offshore 2-D and 3-D seismic data program by Fairweather Geophysical/Veritas DGS. The areas include Anchor Point, Cook Inlet east, Cook Inlet north and the Forelands, a total of some 12-14 weeks of work which Fairweather has told the state it would like to complete by the end of May.

The application is not complete for this project, but Fairweather said it would use helicopter portable techniques for the onshore portion of the survey and ocean bottom cable and streamers for the offshore portion.

Aurora Gas LLC has begun discussions with the state for 25 line miles of 2-D seismic in the Soldotna area to be completed by October of next year.