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Meetings planned on NordAq gas project
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning a pair of public meetings on NordAq Energy Inc.’s proposed Shadura natural gas development project.
NordAq, a small independent based in Anchorage, has applied to the agency for a right of way to construct and operate facilities in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
The government owns the land surface in the project area, while Cook Inlet Region Inc. owns the subsurface. CIRI has entered into a lease with NordAq to develop the gas, a recent Fish and Wildlife Service public notice said.
The proposed development is located in the northwestern portion of the refuge, west of the Swanson River field.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act allows for access to subsurface inholdings within the refuge for oil and gas exploration and development.
NordAq drilled an exploratory well on its Shadura prospect in early 2011.
Exactly what the company’s development project entails was unclear as Petroleum News went to press. The Fish and Wildlife Service had not yet posted a project description.
Gas discovery announced The agency did, however, post a map showing a proposed work pad nearly a mile east of the Shadura No. 1 well.
In January, the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas said NordAq had applied to drill a Shadura appraisal well. That well would be drilled on a state lease at a site about three miles northwest of the work pad, a map NordAq submitted to the state shows.
In late 2011, postings on NordAq’s website said the 14,000-foot Shadura No. 1 well made “a significant natural gas discovery,” and that the company intended to drill six development wells to produce about 50 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The content on NordAq’s website has since disappeared.
The Fish and Wildlife Service plans to hold two public meetings to “gather information necessary for the preparation of an environmental document.”
“These meetings will explain the project, hear your concerns, and receive your comments,” the public notice said.
The first meeting will run from 6 to 8 p.m. March 20 at the Challenger Learning Center in Kenai. The second meeting will run from 6 to 8 p.m. March 22 at the Campbell Creek Science Center in Anchorage.
More information is expected to appear online prior to the meetings at kenai.fws.gov/current.htm.
—Wesley Loy
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