Perf Drill test fails; drill rig coming in spring

Rutter and Wilbanks’ Perf Drill test at its Ahtna No. 119 gas exploration well near Glennallen in the Copper River basin didn’t work.

“They got stuck again. … They couldn’t make the Perf Drill work; they couldn’t get more than 3 or 4 feet out into the formation,” Bill Rutter III told Petroleum News Oct. 26. “It was an expensive experiment and it didn’t work. We’re coming back in the spring with a drill rig.”

The Texas-based independent started drilling the 7,500 foot well in February 2005.

But drilling was hampered when the company encountered extremely high pressures in the well bore. To alleviate the pressure the drillers had to use heavy mud to complete drilling, which damaged the formation.

“We ended up drilling most of that well with 20 pound mud.” Rutter said.

This past fall the company went back in to test the well using a Cad Pressure Central snubbing unit. The company was hoping the Perf Drill could get through the casing to where it thinks the reservoir is, some 10-12 feet past the reservoir damage.

—Kay Cashman