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State approves Kitchen Lights plan
Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas has approved Furie Operating Alaska’s latest plan of exploration for the Kitchen Lights unit, offshore in Cook Inlet. The division says the benefits of plan approval outweigh any possible adverse impacts, given the mitigation measures that Furie will implement and given other stipulations associated with the approval.
Furie is in the process of continuing the development of its offshore Kitchen Lights gas field in the unit but also wants to resume a program of exploration drilling using the Randolf Yost jack-up drilling rig.
The plan entails the drilling of two new development wells at the Kitchen Lights field by the end of October this year. Furie plans two further Kitchen Lights development wells in 2017 and 2018.
In terms of exploration, Furie wants to re-enter and evaluate the KLU No. 4 well at some time between May of this year and the end of October 2017. The company previously drilled KLU No. 4 in the northern block of the unit in 2013 and 2014, but the company now wants to go deeper, to test the lower strata of the Tertiary sequence of the Cook Inlet basin and to penetrate deeper Jurassic rocks of Mesozoic age.
Continuing exploration Under the plan, the drilling of new exploration wells will continue with the KLU No. 9 and No. 12 wells in 2017. The No. 9 well is in the extreme north of the unit, while the No. 12 well is a mile or so southwest of the KLU No. 4 well. In 2018 Furie wants to drill the Osprey and Deep Jurassic Prospect wells in the Corsair block of the unit. The Osprey well would test a new horizon, drilling from the surface location of the Julius R. platform, the production platform for the Kitchen Lights field. The Deep Jurassic well would test an oil prospect in the upper Jurassic.
According to Furie’s approved plan, the company would drill the KLU Nos. 10 and 11 wells in the unit’s central block in 2019, with the Nos. 6 and 8 wells in the southwest block to follow in 2020, and the No. 7 well in the same block in 2021.
The Randolf Yost rig is currently on site at the Julius R. platform, preparing to drill Furie’s first well for this year.
- ALAN BAILEY
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