Unocal to drill in Deep Creek unit

Kristen Nelson, Petroleum News editor-in-chief

Union Oil Company of California has received a drilling permit from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for the 1 Happy Valley exploration well on Cook Inlet Region land in the company's Deep Creek unit southeast of Ninilchik.

Superior Oil drilled the Happy Valley Unit 31-22 well in the same area in 1963: section 22, township 2 south, range 13 west, Seward Meridian. Superior plugged and abandoned that 13,550 foot vertical hole.

The 22,617-acre Deep Creek unit is the larger of two exploration units Unocal has on the southern Kenai Peninsula. The other, the 6,998-acre South Ninilchik unit, is adjacent to the Marathon-operated Ninilchik unit.

Terms of the Deep Creek unit included an initial well, which Unocal completed in 2002. The vertical 1 Deep Creek NNA exploration well was completed as a gas well at 10,590 feet in section 11-T2S-R13W, Seward Meridian.

The Deep Creek unit was approved in late 2001 and the exploration plan included the Deep Creek NNA well, described as an offset to Socal Deep Creek Unit No. 1. Unocal told the state that while the plan covered only two years, it envisioned at least one more exploration well on one of the other structures in the unit area.

The Happy Valley is a directional well from a surface location in section 22-T2S-R13W, SM, to a bottomhole location in section 21-T2S-R13W, SM.