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Phillips to drill old Starichkof prospect offshore Anchor River
Kristen Nelson
Phillips Alaska Inc. has begun permitting to drill in the lower Cook Inlet offshore north of Anchor Point where Pennzoil Co. found oil and gas in 1967. Unlike the earlier vertical wells drilled offshore with a jack-up rig, Phillips will drill directionally from an onshore location, with extended reach wells estimated at up to 18,500 feet (3.5 miles) to reach a target at 7,000 vertical feet.
Phillips is permitting up to two wells with sidetracks from private surface and bottom holes on a state lease in Cook Inlet. The company said the Cosmopolitan project drilling pad will be some 5.5 miles north of Anchor Point and a half mile west of the Sterling Highway.
Construction is planned for this summer, with drilling beginning in September and continuing for 150 to 240 days. Long directional drilling With two well and two sidetracks there could be four reservoir penetrations. Phillips said testing could be for 10 days up to a year, to monitor and determine the long-term productivity of the target reservoir, determine any potential reservoir boundaries near the well and to test artificial lift mechanisms.
Both fresh water and oil-based drilling muds will be used, with water-based mud from the surface to a depth of approximately 7,000 feet measured depth (3,700 feet true vertical depth) and oil-based mud from 7,000 ft MD to 18,500 ft MD (7,000 ft TVD). Earlier drilling The Pennzoil Co. found oil and gas in 1967 at the Starichkof State No. 1, a 12,112 foot vertical hole southeast of the proposed Cosmopolitan target. Recovered oil included 30 barrels of 20 degree API gravity from a drill stem test at about 6,900 feet and 21 barrels from a drill stem test at about 6,800 feet. Pennzoil reported encountering the top of the Hemlock formation at 6,745 feet.
A Starichkof unit was approved in July 1967 and a second well, the 8,775 foot Starichkof State Unit No. 1, was drilled some two miles from the first well but found water in the Hemlock formation at 7,355 feet and a slight amount of gas around 4,000 feet.
Testing this target from shore has been considered by previous leaseholders. The lease is currently held by Forest Oil Corp., Phillips Alaska and Anadarko Production Corp., as is the adjacent lease to the east. Both of these leases expire Dec. 31 of this year.
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