Furie mobilizing rig early July

Furie Operating Alaska anticipates mobilizing the Randolf Yost jack-up rig in Cook inlet at the beginning of July, Bruce Webb, Furie senior vice president, has told Petroleum News. The rig overwintered at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. It requires upgrades to a couple of its systems before deployment, Webb said.

Furie has said that during this year’s drilling season in the inlet it plans to first use the Randolf Yost rig to complete the KLU A-1 development well that the company started drilling last September at the Julius R gas production platform in the Kitchen Lights unit. That well forms part of a Kitchen Lights gas field development commitment associated with a gas supply agreement with Enstar Natural Gas Co.

Furie also plans to drill a deep exploration well into the Jurassic in the Kitchen Light unit this year. That well has a planned depth of more than 20,000 feet, seeking oil in Mesozoic strata below the Tertiary rocks that host the producing Cook Inlet oil and gas fields.

- ALAN BAILEY