|
Kitchen Lights work continues
Work on Furie Operating Alaska’s Kitchen Lights gas field in Cook Inlet continues ahead of schedule, Bruce Webb, Furie senior vice president, told Petroleum News in a June 22 email. Furie is developing the field from an offshore production platform that the company is in the process of putting in place about 10 miles northwest of Boulder Point, near Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. The subsea pipeline that will carry gas to shore from the platform is just 2,000 feet from completion, while the heavy lift vessel MV Svenja is finishing driving the eight pilings that will secure the platform’s monopod leg to the seafloor, Webb said.
After the remaining section of the pipeline has been laid, a crew will connect the end of the line to a pipeline that has already been inserted through a hole, directionally drilled under the coastal bluff and connecting with a shore-based facility that will process Kitchen Lights gas. Utility-grade gas from the facility, near East Foreland on the Kenai Peninsula, will be delivered into a nearby section of the Southcentral Alaska gas transmission pipeline network.
Fabrication of the onshore facility is nearing completion, with the construction work winding down, Webb said.
Offshore, once all of the platform pilings have been driven into the seafloor, the next step will be to cement the pilings in place. It will then be possible to fit the main platform support structure and the platform decks to the platform’s leg that now projects above the waters of Cook Inlet. The Svenja should be able to complete those operations and depart the Cook Inlet by the end of July, Webb said. That will lead to an operation involving the connection of the end of the subsea pipeline to the platform, he said.
Testing in August Based on this schedule, Furie anticipates being able to begin testing of all of the various pieces of equipment required for operating the field by the middle of August. The company also anticipates pressure testing the subsea pipeline at about the same time, Webb said.
Initial gas production will come from the Kitchen Lights unit No. 3 well that Furie drilled in 2013. But, with field startup depending on the installation of a workover rig on the platform and the use of that rig to tie the well into the subsea gas pipeline, commissioning of the field and associated facilities is unlikely to start before November, Furie has said. That would allow time for sorting out any kinks in the system before the first of Furie’s gas supply contracts with its customers comes into play on Jan. 1.
Gas supply contracts currently in place or under negotiation only account for some half of the 85 million cubic feet per day of Kitchen Lights production that Furie hopes for initially. And the company has said that it could double that output capacity by installing a second subsea pipeline from the Kitchen Lights platform, if the company can find customers for the gas. Furie has been discussing with various businesses potential outlets for the Kitchen Lights gas, including the possibility of using the gas for liquefied natural gas production.
- Alan Bailey
| 