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Aurora: more inlet gas from west side Company applies for pool rules for west side Three Mile Creek; will build 5-mile connecting line Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Aurora Gas, operator of the Three Mile Creek unit, plans to develop the Beluga formation gas accumulation on the west side of Cook Inlet this year.
The company said in a pool rules application to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that while full field delineation has not occurred, it has begun discussing formation of a participating area with the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas and Cook Inlet Region Inc. — the Three Mile Creek unit is on state and CIRI leases some five miles west of the Beluga River unit.
The commission has tentatively scheduled a public hearing on the application Aug. 16, but said that if it receives no requests to hold the hearing it may consider the issuance of an order without a hearing.
Aurora drilled the Three Mile Creek Unit No. 1 discovery well, completed in January, to a bottomhole in section 34, township 13 north, range 11 west, Seward Meridian. The company said the well had a measured depth of 8,185 feet and a true vertical depth of 8,016 feet.
Aurora said the well tested gas at “potentially commercial rates from six distinct Beluga Formation sand intervals in two separate tests,” the last of which was finished in mid-June. Gas rates from individual Beluga intervals were low, the company said, which necessitates commingling production from several Beluga intervals where possible. Tight well spacing requested The company said tight well spacing is expected to be required to maximize resource recovery from the complex and moderately low permeability reservoir in order to commercialize “a moderately low quality resource otherwise likely to not be recovered.” Tight well spacing would also, Aurora told the commission, lower “the economic threshold of field development, reducing the abandonment flow rates of wells, reducing operating expense” and allowing it to produce longer and recover more reserves.
Aurora requested well spacing of approximately 60 acres, and noted that Beluga River unit well spacing varies between 40 and 80 acres while Beluga formation wells at the Kenai unit have well spacing of 48-56 acres per well.
Aurora said it hopes to drill at least two delineation gas wells at the field this year, both also in section 34.
The company received pipeline permits in mid-June and plans to build a five-mile natural gas gathering line to connect with its Lone Creek gathering line to the south. It will also install a gas production facility at the Three Mile Creek unit No. 1 well site, which is designated at the field’s central pad.
First gas sales are expected as early as Aug. 1, with drilling operations for the delineation wells expected around Sept. 1.
Aurora has also received a permit for the Lone Creek No. 3 exploration well on CIRI fee land, targeting undefined gas in the Lone Creek field. The proposed well is a vertical hole in section 18, township 12 north, range 11 west, Seward Meridian.
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