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Division OKs wells at Beluga River K pad
Two grass roots wells to be drilled, additional infrastructure OK’d; pad expansion approved last year following exploratory well Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas has approved a lease plan of operations amendment for two grass roots wells and associated infrastructure at the Beluga River unit K pad.
In the March 20 decision the division said Hilcorp Alaska, the Beluga River unit operator, requested authorization to drill two grass roots wells on K pad. The wells will produce from a state subsurface lease.
“The project will include installation of associated tie-in infrastructure including gas flowlines, electrical instrumentation, well cellars, and conductors,” the division said, with all activities occurring on the existing K pad and tying into existing gas production infrastructure on the pad.
K pad is on the west side of Cook Inlet, some 2 miles west of the mouth of the Beluga River, the division said.
Hilcorp took over as operator at Beluga River in 2016 and holds a 33.33% interest. The majority interest in the field, 66.67%, is held by Chugach Electric Association.
K pad expansion Hilcorp filed to expand K pad last year by adding some 4.5 acres to the existing pad. Additional infrastructure was also planned.
“This project is necessary to support additional resource development within BRU,” Hilcorp told the division when it applied for the pad expansion. It said additional wells would be drilled in 2023, with the expansion necessary to provide “the space necessary to accommodate drilling rig access to development targets while also allowing safe access and uninterrupted facility operations.”
That expansion was approved in August. In addition to expanding the pad, it was to be connected to existing highline power via an overhead powerline.
Infrastructure added included a compressor package and a communications tower.
The current approval includes the two grass roots wells and “installation of associated tie-in infrastructure including gas flowlines, electrical instrumentation, well cellars, and conductors.”
Hilcorp had drilled an exploration well, BRU 223-24, from K pad in 2021. That well was completed in late 2021 and Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records show it came online in December from the Sterling-Beluga gas pool.
Producing since 1968 Regular production began from the Beluga field in 1968 from the Sterling and Beluga formations, peaking in 2004.
When AOGCC issued pool rules for Beluga River in 2022 it said the Sterling-Beluga gas pool “was unexpectedly discovered by Standard Oil Company of California’s” Beluga River 1 exploratory well which was drilled to 16,429 feet measured and true vertical depth in a search for oil at a deeper objective near the center of the present-day unit. The commission said the well blew out in April 1962 while circulating at 3,240 feet measured depth after drilling a portion of the upper Sterling. That well was drilled in 1962 and the company announced a significant gas discovery, before completing and shutting in the well.
Four additional wells drilled between 1962 and 1964 delineated the field.
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