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Aurora Gas plans well re-entries, seismic work
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Next year Aurora Gas plans seismic, facilities construction and at least five reentries of existing wells on the west side of Cook Inlet, south of Anchorage.
Scott Pfoff, president and chief operating officer of Aurora Power, updated the Resource Development Council Nov. 20 in Anchorage on plans for Aurora Gas, the exploration and production branch of the company.
In 2003, Pfoff said, Aurora began natural gas production from the Lone Creek well No. 1.
The company produced its first natural gas from the Nicolai Creek field on the west side of Cook Inlet in 2001.
Aurora’s operational niche, Pfoff said, is on the west side of Cook Inlet, some 60 miles southwest of Anchorage, and involves developing “shallow, onshore natural gas reserves that have been discovered, knowingly or unknowingly, that are within a reasonable distance of infrastructure and simply await development.”
The company reenters wells, completes them for natural gas production and installs facilities and pipelines to move the natural gas to existing pipelines.
Aurora partnered with Boelens’ Wells Service of Thermopolis, Wyo., in early 2002 to overhaul and equip the Aurora Well Service’s Rig. No. 1, transported to Alaska in June 2002. 2003 work includes facilities This year, Aurora shot a 26-square mile seismic program on the west side of the inlet, and constructed a six-mile, six-inch gathering line connecting the Lone Creek No. 1 pad with a new interconnection with the Granite Point to Beluga pipeline. Production and gas sales from the Lone Creek well began July 31.
The Aurora Well Services rig worked over the Nicolai Creek No. 3 well, and then drilled a new well, the Nicolai Creek Unit No. 9, and the company immediately began work on the “NCU 1-2-9 pipeline and facilities project,” Pfoff said, named “1-2-9 because those are the three wells that will be tied in.” The project includes a four-inch, two-mile pipeline to take production from the southern end of the Nicolai Creek field to Aurora’s existing interconnection with the Cook Inlet Gas Gathering System.
Pfoff said the 1-2-9 project includes boring some 2,500 feet of pipeline under wetlands. Aurora will complete that work this year and plans a December startup, he said. “The facility is designed to handle about 12 million cubic feet per day and between the three wells we think we’ll easily be at production facility capacity for at least several years.”
Aurora Well Services also reentered and recompleted the Mobil Moquawkie No. 1. Seismic, five reentries in 2004 Pfoff said Aurora plans in the neighborhood of 75 miles of 2-D seismic on the west side in the first quarter of 2004. In the second quarter, he said, the company plans pipeline and facility project with a four-mile gathering line to tie the Moquawkie field to the south to a new interconnection with the Cook Inlet Gas Gathering System.
And, he said, as with the company’s last two work seasons, “we have more reentry candidates than available rig time,” and will probably drill five reentries in 2004.
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