Ahtna plans April spud date for Tolsona

Tolsona Oil & Gas Exploration LLC has begun building a road and a pad in advance of drilling the Tolsona No. 1 exploration well this spring, according to the company.

The Ahtna Inc. subsidiary is building a short gravel road that will connect a new 4-acre drilling pad to the Glenn Highway, some 11 miles west of the city of Glennallen. The company is using the Ahtna 1-19 well site some two miles to the east as a staging area.

The approximately 5,000-foot exploration well will search for natural gas in the Copper River basin under an exploration license granted by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources last year. The company expects to begin drilling in April, test the well in early May before demobilizing equipment and cleaning up the area in June. Because of the proximity to the road system, Ahtna is able to conduct operations during the summer.

“We are anxious to begin drilling on this project which began nearly six years ago with the application process,” Ahtna President Michelle Anderson said in a statement. “We are optimistic of a resource discovery that will help address the rural energy crisis in the Ahtna region. A substantial discovery would benefit not only the Ahtna region, but the state at large. It would provide a boost to the economy by putting Alaskans to work and help to alleviate the high energy costs that many residents experience.”

Rutter and Wilbanks Corp. drilled Ahtna 1-19 between 2005 and 2007. The well encountered natural gas but also encountered high-pressure water zones, which made development unfeasible. Ahtna believes it has resolved any potential pressure problems.

- ERIC LIDJI