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Hilcorp plans more Cook Inlet drilling, applies to NOAA for IHA
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska has applied to NOAA Fisheries for incidental harassment authorizations for the possible disturbance of marine mammals during a planned offshore drilling program in Cook Inlet. The authorization would apply to the use of tugboats for towing a jack-up drilling rig to various drilling sites. The sites are all within what Hilcorp characterizes as the middle Cook Inlet, the area containing existing offshore oil and gas production platforms. The planned drilling operations do not encompass the lower Cook Inlet, where Hilcorp has exploration interests in federal offshore leases.
An incidental harassment authorization, or IHA, allows the minor, unintended disturbance of marine mammals. And an authorization specifies precautions that must be taken to avoid marine mammal disturbance. In 2019 NOAA issued a letter of authorization with a termination date of July 30, 2024, for the incidental harassment for marine mammals as a consequence of Hilcorp’s operations in the Cook Inlet. However, the company says that that authorization did not encompass the use of tugboats for towing a jack-up rig - hence the need for an IHA for this specific activity.
Two-year drilling program In its IHA application Hilcorp says that it plans a two-year offshore drilling program, probably using the Spartan 151 jack-up drilling rig. The rig would be towed to drilling sites using three ocean-going tugs. Helicopters and fixed wing aircraft would potentially be deployed during the operations, with helicopters being used for crew changes and the provision of supplies for the jack-up rig.
Year one of the planned operations would run from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. Operations in that year would include the completion of the plugging and abandonment of well 17589-1A, drilled in 1962 as a relief well for the North Cook Inlet discovery well. The well location is offshore, a few miles ENE of Tyonek. Hilcorp said that plugging and abandonment of this well had begun in 2021 but could not be completed at that time because of a broken piece of wellhead equipment that needed to be manufactured out of state. Divers will assist with the plugging and abandonment activities, which are expected to take about 30 days to complete.
During the 12-month period the jack-up rig will also conduct production drilling activities at offshore platforms, Hilcorp told NOAA. And production drilling activities will continue in year two of the drilling program, running from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, Hilcorp wrote. The company did not specify which wells or how many wells may be drilled. The company has previously said that, for drilling from an offshore platform, the drilling rig on the jack-up rig can be moved on and off the platform, as necessary.
- ALAN BAILEY
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