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Alliance to test North Fork gas well
Alliance Energy is about to do some further testing of the North Fork No. 41-35 well.
“We will be starting a test here shortly — it’s scheduled to begin in the next couple of weeks,” Barry Foote, vice president of Alliance Energy, told Petroleum News Sept. 20.
Standard Oil of California drilled the 41-35 well in 1965. Northstar Energy, a sister company to Alliance Energy, tested the well in 2001 and reported a flow of 4 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from one interval at 8,500 feet. Northstar had earlier purchased Gas-Pro Alaska LLC, the company that acquired Unocal’s interest in the North Fork unit in 1996.
Alliance Energy now plans to test a deeper horizon.
“We are actually going to a lower Tyonek sand that we think may be a very extensive sand,” Foote said. “We’re going to reperf it and check it out because we think it might be a substantial thing.” RCA sales agreement approval In July 2004 Northstar obtained approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for a gas sales agreement between Northstar and Enstar Natural Gas Co. That agreement would enable Enstar to bring North Fork gas to Homer through pipelines that the two companies would construct. The agreement and RCA approval were contingent on Northstar drilling at least one additional North Fork well to raise proved reserves in the field from 12 billion cubic feet to 14.5 bcf and to ensure a 20-year gas supply for Homer.
In August 2004 Northstar said that it hoped to drill the second well “as soon as January 2005.”
Foote now says that Alliance Energy plans to drill the second North Fork well in 2006, perhaps in late spring. He said that the upcoming well tests will help prepare for the drilling.
“We’d like to get it into production next year and see Enstar get their pipeline in and start providing gas for the southern Kenai,” Foote said.
—Alan Bailey
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