Alaskan Crude applies to re-enter Kenai well

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief

James W. White of Alaskan Crude Corp. has submitted a plan of operation to the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas for re-entry of the Moose Point well drilled by Amarex Inc. on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula in 1978.

White, of San Antonio, Texas, told the state he plans to re-enter the well casing, remove three cement plugs and test for gas. The well is on private property in section 14, township 9 north, range 9 west, Seward Meridian, some 25 miles northeast of Kenai, Alaska, and north of Unocal’s Birch Hill gas field.

White acquired the 4,800-acre lease the well is on, ADL 389922, by assignment from Richard E. Wagner and others effective April 1, 2003. Wagner acquired the lease in the state of Alaska’s 2001 Cook Inlet areawide lease sale for $5.01 an acre.

In April, Alaskan Crude received a spacing exception from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, allowing the company to re-enter and test the plugged and abandoned Moose Point Unit No. 1 well for gas within 1,500 feet of a property line. The commission said regular production could not begin from the well until the commission takes further action because the well is within 140 feet of a property line.

White told the Division of Oil and Gas that the well is accessible from an unimproved road owned by the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which forms the west boundary line of the property containing the Amarex well. Work will be done from the original drill site gravel pad.

White said he plans to drill out the cement casing plugs set at 55 feet to 147 feet, 4,907 feet to 4,985 feet and 8,283 feet to 8,583 feet. The casing will be drilled and reamed to 8,800 feet, and selected intervals will be tested for gas production.

The work is expected to take approximately 30 days.

Amarex drilled the Moose Point well to a total depth of 10,058. It was logged and drill stem tests were run before it was suspended in March 1978 and plugged and abandoned a year later.