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CIE applies for pool rules for North Fork Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission may hold hearing in January on Tyonek gas pool application from Cook Inlet Energy KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
Cook Inlet Energy has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for pool rules for the undifferentiated Tyonek gas pool at the North Fork unit. CIE is the operator and sole working interest owner at North Fork. The commission said it has tentatively scheduled a public hearing on the application for Jan. 5 at 9 a.m. at its Anchorage offices, but if it does not receive a request for such a hearing by Dec. 7, it may consider issuing an order without a hearing.
CIE’s application requests that the commission issue a pool rule order for the Tyonek undifferentiated gas pool, classifying the pool as a gas pool and prescribing rules to govern the proposed development and operation of the pool.
Discovery well in 1965 North Fork is on the southern Kenai Peninsula some 10 miles north-northwest of Homer.
Standard Oil Company of California drilled the discovery well at North Fork in 1965, discovering the North Fork gas accumulation. North Fork had several changes of ownership but there was no further exploration or any development activities until 2007 when the North Fork leases were acquired by Denver-based independent Armstrong Oil and Gas, which brought in four partners, all small independents. That joint venture re-entered the original well, drilled new wells and brought the unit on production in 2011. CIE said Armstrong work at North Fork included acquisition of 3-D seismic over the area, drilling additional wells and installation of production facilities.
The field was acquired by CIE in 2013, an acquisition which included six wells, 15,465 acres, Anchor Point Energy LLC which owns pipelines from the field and a supply contract with Enstar Natural Gas Co.
CIE said the North Fork unit, following various expansions and contractions, exists of some 2,062 acres with the Gas Pool No. 1 participating area covering 800 acres. Through September the field had produced some 11.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Single pad CIE said all wells producing from the proposed pool - with the exception of the discovery well - have been drilled from a single pad. The company said all wells in the current development phase and all wells under consideration would be drilled from the existing pad, “with a pad expansion in the planning stages.”
CIE said a recent volumetric study showed there may be as much as 70-80 bcf of original gas in place, but said recovery from the area will likely be less than 30 bcf, “due primarily to poor continuity and low permeability.”
Gas has been tested and/or produced from 12 different sands within the field, the company said. The primary producing formation is the Tyonek, with several intervals identified.
The proposed definition for the Tyonek gas field at North Fork is the section below the Beluga and overlying the Hemlock formation, and is best illustrated by the original NFU 41-35 exploration well, the company said, with the Tyonek formation correlated to sands, shales, claystones and coals lying below the top of the Tyonek at a depth of 4,840 feet measured depth and above the Hemlock formation at a depth of 10,797 feet MD.
Two new wells CIE said it has completed two new wells since it purchased North Fork.
The company said it drilled the NFU 24-26 well directionally to the east; the NFU 42-35 will be drilled to the south, with additional wells used to infill the current well spacing to effectively drain the reservoir. CIE said there are three remaining slots in the current double-wide well row with 50-foot centers, and should additional well slots be required, well row expansion will be to the east, with 50-foot well centers maintained.
CIE said North Fork is comprised entirely of state of Alaska lands with six wells in production with an average dfaily production of some 9 million cubic feet.
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