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F&W proposes IHA for Hilcorp survey
Airborne gravity and magnetic survey would encompass part of federal lower Cook Inlet and adjacent onshore region of state land
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed issuing an incidental harassment authorization to Hilcorp Alaska for an airborne gravity and magnetic survey that the company plans to conduct over part of the lower Cook Inlet this summer. The company had applied for authorization for the unintended disturbance of northern sea otters by noise created by the survey operations. Fish and Wildlife says that Hilcorp had originally planned to conduct both an aerial geophysical survey and an in-water seismic survey but had subsequently withdrawn the seismic survey from its plans.
The company now plans to conduct the aerial survey between May 23 and July 1, Fish and Wildlife said in a Federal Register notice regarding the proposed IHA. The agency requires comments on the IHA by May 29. Presumably Hilcorp will not commence the survey unless the IHA is confirmed, following consideration of public comments. Fish and Wildlife says that the IHA takes into account potential environmental impacts through Sept. 30, an extended timeframe that would provide additional flexibility for completing the project. The time extension assumes that the total amount of surveying would remain unaltered but that it could be carried out over a longer time period.
Partly onshore The IHA notice says that the survey will encompass federal waters of the lower Cook Inlet, some nearshore state waters and some onshore state land. In an application to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a permit to conduct the survey, Hilcorp said that part of the survey would cover land on the Iniskin Peninsula on the west side of the inlet and that the company plans to hire CGG Multi-Physics to acquire and process the data. The IHA notice says that the plan is to use a modified DC-3 fixed-wing aircraft for the offshore portion of the survey, with an AS-350 B3 helicopter being used onshore. A total of about 14 days of surveying would be required, with the scheduling of the flights being dependent on weather conditions.
Hilcorp acquired 14 lease blocks in BOEM’s 2017 Cook Inlet outer continental shelf lease sale. According to BOEM, Hilcorp’s planned survey encompasses all 14 of these lease blocks. In 2013 Hilcorp commissioned a 41-mile 2-D seismic survey between Chinitna Bay and Iniskin Bay. Hilcorp has also conducted a geologic assessment of the Iniskin Peninsula in conjunction with this seismic survey. With known oil seeps and spectacular geologic structures, the peninsula has been of interest to oil explorers since the early days of Alaska oil exploration.
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