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NordAq proposes six-well gas development Shadura project is in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge; federal officials preparing EIS with permit decision due in December Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Anchorage-based independent NordAq Energy Inc. is planning to drill up to six wells to produce natural gas from its Shadura discovery on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
The project involves construction of a gravel well pad and associated facilities in the northwest portion of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
The site is northeast of the Nikiski community, and west of the legacy Swanson River oil and gas field.
NordAq has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, for a right-of-way permit to access the Shadura site.
While the government owns the land surface in the project area, Cook Inlet Region Inc. owns the subsurface estate. CIRI, an Anchorage-based Alaska Native corporation, has leased natural gas development rights to NordAq.
A federal law, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, provides for “adequate and feasible access” to inholdings within the wildlife refuge.
EIS under way A 1941 executive order established what originally was called the Kenai National Moose Range.
Today the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge takes in 1.97 million acres — much of the Kenai Peninsula — and includes 1.35 million acres designated as wilderness.
CIRI holds about 200,000 acres of subsurface estate within the refuge, which has long hosted oil and gas activity such as the Swanson River field and the Beaver Creek oil and gas unit.
Details about the Shadura development were revealed during a public scoping meeting the Fish and Wildlife Service held March 22 in Anchorage.
The agency is preparing an environmental impact statement to look at different access alternatives for the Shadura project, which is not on wilderness acreage. Arcadis, a consulting firm, is helping develop the EIS.
NordAq cannot be denied access through the EIS process. But certain conditions may be set, such as what route the proposed gravel access road must follow.
After releasing draft and final EIS documents, the Fish and Wildlife Service expects to issue a record of decision in December, according to a schedule shown at the scoping meeting.
NordAq’s president, Bob Warthen, attended the meeting and answered questions for people who attended. Warthen is a geologist and veteran of the Cook Inlet oil and gas scene, having worked as a Unocal manager and as a consultant.
State records show NordAq was incorporated in Delaware in January 2009.
Warthen is listed as a 25 percent owner, with Hugh North, of Farnham, England, holding another 25 percent. Two others, Paul L. Devine and John Kidd, also hold 25 percent each. NordAq’s Anchorage office location is the only address given for Devine and Kidd.
Size of gas discovery undisclosed NordAq fully intends to proceed with the Shadura development, Warthen told Petroleum News. He said his company has the capital to do it.
“We wouldn’t be here if it’s not a go,” he said. “Going through an EIS process is not inexpensive.”
In late 2011, postings on NordAq’s website said the company was pursuing a six-well development to produce 50 million cubic feet of gas per day.
But Warthen said that figure was a “facility design volume,” and that production might be substantially less, depending on the magnitude of any Cook Inlet gas shortage and the quantity of gas NordAq can sell.
He declined to specify the size of the Shadura gas discovery, made in early 2011 with the drilling of a wildcat well, the Shadura No. 1. The company built an ice road into the wildlife refuge to support the exploratory effort.
The 14,624-foot well was drilled at the edge of the reservoir, Warthen said. The proposed development pad is 6,000 feet due east of the exploratory well.
A major fault separates Shadura from the Swanson River field farther east, he said.
For road access, NordAq prefers Alternative 1, a route running about 4.3 miles southeast from Captain Cook State Recreation Area to the Shadura pad.
NordAq hopes to put its gas into the ConocoPhillips pipeline that runs along the Cook Inlet shore to the liquefied natural gas plant at Nikiski.
Warthen dismissed talk that perhaps NordAq is for sale.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We’ve got some excellent prospects ... and we want to see that come to fruition.”
Appraisal well planned NordAq is permitting a Shadura appraisal well to be drilled from state lease ADL 391596 to a bottom hole location on a CIRI lease. The state lease is northwest of, and adjacent to, NordAq’s CIRI leases.
The well will target Beluga and Tyonek formation sands, say documents submitted to the state Division of Oil and Gas.
Warthen couldn’t say exactly when the appraisal well will be drilled, but he said it will be in the next two years.
The directional well will extend more than 16,000 feet measured depth, Warthen said.
“We need a big rig. We don’t have it yet,” he said.
Even if the appraisal well is a dry hole, it won’t impact the Shadura development plans, Warthen said.
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