Forest sees additional Cook Inlet opportunities

Kristen Nelson

Forest Oil Corp. sees opportunities in Cook Inlet on the east side, on the west side and in the inlet, Forest Senior Vice President Gary Carlson told the Resource Development Council April 19.

Offshore, the company is currently drilling a second exploration well from its Osprey Platform at the Redoubt Shoal field. “The second well, that we’re drilling now, will tell us a lot about how big the field is,” Carlson said.

The company began permitting work for Redoubt in late 1998, he said, and hopes to have permits in hand this summer, so if the field is large enough for commercial development, the company will be ready to go. The plan is to put most of the facilities — including power generation, water injection and gas handling — on shore with cables and pipelines running out to the platform.

Carlson said Forest is a partner in the exploratory well Phillips Alaska Inc. is permitting on the east side and is evaluating some of its own acreage on the west side, where development drilling is almost complete at the Forest-operated West McArthur River field.

As for a date for more Cook Inlet exploratory drilling, Carlson said perhaps as early as 2002.