Cosmopolitan drilling set to begin, first spill drill held

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Phillips Alaska Inc. plans to spud the first well at its proposed Cosmopolitan unit near Nikiski in Lower Cook Inlet the week of Oct. 14, Phillips spokeswoman Dawn Patience told PNA Oct. 10.

Drilling at the Hansen No.1 well is expected to continue for 150 to 240 days and is being done from private land on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet. The sidetrack will extend up to 18,500 feet (3.5 miles) to reach an offshore bottom hole at approximately 7,000 vertical feet.

The well will be drilled to depths sufficient to penetrate the Lower Tyonek sand prone interval correlative to the section seen in the nearby Starichkof State No. 1 well.

“Phillips held its first spill prevention drill at the Hansen well site on Oct. 4. The deployment drill involved: ADEC, U.S. Coast Guard, Nabors Alaska Drilling, Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response, Udelhoven, Peak Oilfield Services, SLRoss, McLane, Epoch. The exercise was observed by Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council and the Cook Inlet Keepers,” Patience said.

In August, Phillips filed a final application with the state Division of Oil and Gas and the U.S. Minerals Management Service to unitize Cosmopolitan’s seven state lower Cook Inlet leases, totaling 24,600 acres, and two federal Outer Continental Shelf leases, totaling 9,765 acres.

Working interest owners in the proposed Cosmopolitan unit are field operator Phillips, Forest Oil Corp, Rosewood Resources Inc., Devon Energy Corp, ExxonMobil and Hunt Petroleum Corp.