Pelican applies for Beluga, Tyonek seismic programs

Kristen Nelson

Pelican Hill Oil and Gas Inc. has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, to conduct two seismic surveys on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Project 1, Beluga 3-D, is 14 square miles within townships 12 and 13 north, ranges 11 and 12 west, Seward Meridian.

Project 2, Tyonek 3-D, is 20 square miles within townships 10 and 11 north, ranges 12 and 13 west, Seward Meridian.

Pelican Hill took five tracts, 25,187 acres, in an Alaska Mental Health Land Office oil and gas lease sale in September. Three of the tracts are north of Tyonek west of the Phillips Alaska Inc.-operated Beluga River gas field. The other two tracts are west of Tyonek, one at Granite Point near Aurora Gas's Nicolai Creek gas field and the other to the northwest.

Al Gross of Pelican Hill told PNA in November that he planned to do seismic on the leases in late January and February and drill later in the year. (See stories in Dec. 9 issue of PNA.)

Track-mounted drills to be used

The state said small charges will be used in the program. Locations for the source and receiver lines will be marked on the ground and three track-mounted drills will bore to depths of 20 feet every 220 feet along a source lines. A 4.4 pound charge of Dynoseis will be placed in each hole and the hole will be backfilled.

Source lines will be 990 feet apart. Recording cables with geophones will be placed on the ground, with recording lines 660 feet apart.

The charges will be detonated one at a time. The recording cables, flagging, stakes and cap-wire will be recovered and the process repeated until the program is complete.

The activity will be supported by a helicopter and fixed wing aircraft. The 30 person crew will be staged from existing facilities in Beluga, Tyonek or Shirleyville.

The program will be shot during the winter of 2001-2002 and take approximately 45 days.