Independent upgrading equipment at Iliamna well site

Petroleum News

Pelican Hill Oil and Gas spud its first well in Alaska on Nov. 4, the Iliamna No. 1, on the west side of Cook Inlet. Its target natural gas, the company used a Water Resources International rig, the Ideco H-35 KD, which Pelican Hill President Al Gross had brought in from Hawaii last summer. The rig had mainly been used to drill water wells.

The San Clemente, Calif.-based independent ran into a number of equipment problems and was unable to finish drilling the well this past winter, temporarily capping it in early December after drilling approximately 3,500 feet of a target depth of 5,500 feet.

“There is a 200 foot cement plug in the well bore to prevent any unexpected problems while the site was unmanned,” Bruce Webb, natural resource officer for the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, told Petroleum News in mid-June. Webb had just come from the Iliamna drill site. “Pelican is in the process of rebuilding a good portion of their mechanical components … pumps, generators and engines. They have also purchased several new pieces of equipment.”

Once the drilling operations resume, expected to be in mid-summer, “they will drill out the cement plug and run cased hole logs. This will include a pulse neutron over the previously unlogged interval of the well to evaluate for gas potential. They will also run a cement bond log to ensure the cement is in place properly between the outside of the casing and the ground,” Webb said.

“If the logs prove to be sufficient, and they get the necessary permits from AOGCC and the DEC, they plan on injecting the used drilling mud into a non-producing zone from this well,” he said.

The cuttings from the well will be washed and used for fill by a local private property owner, Webb said.

Iliamna No. 1 is a vertical hole in section 31, township 9 north, range 14 west, Seward Meridian. It is on state oil and gas lease ADL 0388133, onshore at Trading Bay, north of the Trading Bay production facility.

Access to the exploration sites is by existing roads and temporary roads constructed with an interlocking mat system which will be removed once the work is complete.

Pelican Hill received a permit for a second well, the Iliamna No. 2, on Oct. 30. That well is also a vertical hole. It is in section 29-T9N-R14W, SM, also on state oil and gas lease ADL 0388133.

Webb said the company plans to drill the second well upon completion of the first.