Hilcorp applies for Kalotsa pad expansion

Hilcorp Alaska LLC has applied to Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas for permission to construct a 73,500-square-foot expansion to the Kalotsa gravel well pad in the Ninilchik gas field. The expansion would enable the number of wells that can be drilled from the pad to be increased from four to 12 - the wells will access the Susan Dionne Paxton participating area in the field, the company told the division. The expansion would also accommodate the production facilities, pipelines and other infrastructure needed to support the additional wells, the company said in its requested amendment to its Ninilchik plan of operations.

The Ninilchik field lies along the western coast of the Kenai Peninsula and has been developed from a series of onshore well pads. Typically, directional drilling accesses offshore reservoir targets from the onshore pads.

The Kalotsa pad is the newest of the Ninilchik pads, having been constructed in October and November of 2016. The pad, about six miles northeast of the village of Ninilchik, lies on private surface land belonging to Ninilchik Native Association.

Petroleum News understands that Hilcorp has now drilled the first two of its Kalotsa wells. The company has clearly decided that significant additional drilling is warranted.

Construction of the pad extension will involve ground clearing, the placement of a pad liner, the placement of gravel over the liner and the construction of a containment berm. Construction should start in early May and take about a month to complete, Hilcorp’s requested plan amendment says.

Drilling of the Kalotsa Nos. 5 and 6 wells should be conducted between July and December of this year, with the drilling of the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 wells to be conducted at some time between January and December 2018. The Nos. 10, 11 and 12 wells would follow, between January 2019 and December 2021, Hilcorp told the division.

- ALAN BAILEY