Division approves Hilcorp's Kenai seismic

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas has approved an application from Hilcorp Alaska for its Southern Kenai Transition Zone seismic program.

This is the second seismic program Hilcorp has planned on the Kenai Peninsula. In February the division approved the company's Sterling Highway 2D seismic program between Clam Gulch and Anchor River (see story in Feb. 25 issue of Petroleum News).

The March 8 approval of the Jan. 5 Southern Kenai Transition Zone application includes discussion of comments the division received on the proposal from other state agencies, a local resident and a conservation organization, with responses from Hilcorp and the division.

The division said the program will use a vibroseis truck, seismic source receiver nodes, Vibrogel Minihole charges, utility terrain vehicle, a mobile drilling unit, a marine vibroseis unit and boats, with up to nine seismic recording lines onshore, offshore and in tidal zones.

The mobile drilling unit will drill three 5-foot-deep holes every 55 feet onshore for placement of the charges, with the charges backfilled to prevent blowouts and so no open holes will be left, the division said. No charges will be placed on the west side of the Sterling Highway.

Onshore receiver nodes will be placed by a utility terrain vehicle every 27.5 feet.

The offshore survey will use a boat equipped with a marine vibroseis unit as the seismic source with offshore and tidal zone receiver nodes placed every 55 feet.

In its public notice on the seismic the division said the area covered is between Ninilchik and Anchor Point. Hilcorp said in its application that the shoot includes up to nine different lines for a total of 60.2 miles (see story in Feb. 4 issue of PN).

Hilcorp has an active development drilling program at its Ninilchik unit and an exploration program underway farther south with wells planned at both Whiskey Gulch and Cottonfield.

--KRISTEN NELSON