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Aurora plans Hanna-area wells
Aurora Exploration Inc. is permitting two natural gas exploration wells in the Susitna Flats State Game Refuge at the northern end of the west side of Cook Inlet.
The two proposed wells would be located on a group of leases surrounded by the Lewis River, Stump Lake, Ivan River, Pretty Creek and Otter units and has previously been known as the Hanna prospect. Aurora recently acquired the leases from Paul Craig.
Under a program described to state officials, Aurora would drill the Theodore River No. 2 well sometime this fall on ADL 391618, using a temporary drilling pad accessed from the existing Beluga highway, and would subsequently use a one-mile snow trail and a second temporary pad to drill the Chedatna Lakes No. 1 well this winter on ADL 391878.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments through Oct. 10.
Patience If Aurora successfully completes the program, the Alaska-based independent will succeed where it and many other companies have failed over the past three decades.
Union Oil Company of California abandoned an exploration program at Hanna in the 1980s in light of falling commodity process. Craig first acquired the leases in 1993 through the independent Trading Bay Energy Corp. but found it difficult to raise money for Alaska exploration after Stewart Petroleum Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in 1996. Forcenergy Inc. acquired the leases in 1997 but filed for bankruptcy in 1999.
Craig acquired the leases a second time through a 2001 lease sale but once again found it difficult to organize an exploration program. A proposed deal with U.S. Petroleum Corp. fell apart in 2002 and a farmout with Pelican Hill Oil and Gas Inc. fell apart in 2005.
Aurora acquired the prospect later that year but suspended all drilling operations in late 2006 while it resolved its ongoing litigation with Enstar Natural Gas Co. In early 2009, Aurora arranged a partnership and even received an Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission drilling permit for a Hanna No. 1 exploration well. This time, the delays were regulatory. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game refused to allow the company to build a drilling pad through a marshy section of the Susitna Flats Game Refuge.
The leases expired again. Craig acquired the prospect for the third time in a 2010 lease sale. Escopeta Oil & Gas Co. expressed an interest in exploring the prospect, believing it could sidestep the regulatory problems by drilling in winter. This time, Craig attached performance requirements to the leases. After two years, Escopeta had missed its deadline. In March 2013, Escopeta transferred the leases to an affiliated independent called Galena Energy Corp., which also missed the deadline. In May 2013, Galena Energy transferred the prospect to Craig. The four leases currently expire Feb. 28, 2018.
Return to exploration The utility Aurora Power Resources Inc. created Aurora Gas in 2000 as an exploration and production arm and the company spent its first decade enthusiastically acquiring and developing properties passed over or abandoned by larger companies through the years.
After finding success reviving old fields, Aurora assumed its first exploration venture in 2004 when it and partner Forest Oil Co. formed the Three Mile Creek unit. Even though the region had previously hosted some exploration activity, including the Superior Oil Co. Three-Mile Creek State No. 1 well in the summer of 1967 and the nearby Phillips Petroleum North Tyonek State No. 1 well the summer of 1973, Aurora President Scott Pfoff told Petroleum News at the time that its Three Mile Creek well would “be much closer to what I would call a wildcat well than a simple developmental reentry.”
The exploration activity launched a successful development program at Three Mile Creek and gave Aurora the confidence to pursue other exploration opportunities, but various efforts to arrange other programs ultimately came to naught. Earlier this summer, though, Aurora began permitting a wide-ranging exploration venture covering six prospects: Chickalusion, Three Mile Creek Deep, Congahbuna Lake and Nicolai Footwall on the west side of Cook Inlet and Forest Lake and West Eagle on the Kenai Peninsula.
- ERIC LIDJI
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