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Division approves North Cook Inlet POD
Hilcorp Alaska plans 3 sidetracks with Spartan 151, slot expansion during 2025 plan of development at large Cook Inlet gas field Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska plans to drill three sidetracks at its North Cook Inlet unit during the 2025 plan of development, along with doing initial work on a 5-year slot expansion program which will run through 2030.
Derek Nottingham, director of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas, signed the division's approval of the 2025 POD May 15. The plan covers July 1 through June 30, 2026.
North Cook Inlet has been in production since 1969, the division said, producing 1.978 billion cubic feet of natural gas through March of this year. Hilcorp acquired the unit from ConocoPhillips effective Oct. 31, 2016. Hilcorp holds 100% of the working interest in all producing intervals within the unit. The North Cook Inlet field is produced from the Tyonek Platform in northern Cook Inlet.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data show that in October 2016 the field averaged 12.52 million cubic feet of natural gas per day with eight wells in production, including one sidetrack. In March, the most recent month for which production data is available from AOGCC, North Cook Inlet averaged 41.17 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, producing from 19 wells, including nine sidetracks, more than three times the 2016 average volume.
2024 POD The division said Hilcorp met its commitments under the 2024 POD, including drilling up to three grassroots wells targeting the Beluga sands; and drilling up to two sidetrack wells.
Hilcorp said it mobilized its Spartan 151 jack-up drilling rig to the Tyonek Platform in June 2024, drilling three grassroots wells and one sidetrack out of the proposed program of up to three grassroots wells and two sidetracks.
The A-19, targeting upper and lower Beluga sands west of the Tyonek Platform, came online in September.
The A-20, targeting upper and lower Beluga sands southwest of the platform, came online in August.
The A-21, targeting upper and lower Beluga sands north of the platform, came online in October, as did the B-10B sidetrack, which targeted upper and lower Beluga sands southeast of the platform.
The division said Hilcorp also executed rig and non-rig activities, including well cleanouts and added perforations on wells NCIU A-09A, NCIU A-16, NCIU A-17 and NCIU A-21, and also completed all planned facility operations.
2025 POD The 2025 POD, which the division has now approved, does not include any grassroots wells, but does include three sidetracks: NCIU A-06A, NCIU A-07A and NCIU A-21A.
In addition to various rig and non-rig well projects, including preparation for sidetrack candidates, coil cleanout and adding perforations, Hilcorp will do a slot expansion to allow for four additional grassroot wells.
The program to install new slots was approved by the division in April and covers work over 5 years, 2025 to 2030.
The addition of slots, which will allow for increased development of the unit, involves welding ice breakers to the outside of the platform's legs, followed by installation of the conductors.
The work during the 2025 POD involves leg two, with the first ice breaker to be installed over the summer and the first two conductors in the fall.
In its approval of the program for the new slots the division said the 5-year project will provide Hilcorp with up to 20 additional well slots on platform.
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