Yukon Flats exploration
AOGCC issues permit for Hilcorp to drill well near village of Birch Creek
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has issued a permit to Hilcorp Alaska for the drilling of an exploration well in the Yukon Flats Basin in Interior Alaska. As previously reported by Petroleum News, in September 2024 Hilcorp filed an oil spill contingency plan for the potential drilling of two wells adjacent to Lower Mouth Birch Creek, a tributary of the Yukon River. The permitted well, the Canvasback 4A well would presumably be drilled from one of these sites, the 4A site, about 10 miles west of the village of Birch Creek.
Sited in Native corporation land The spill response plan indicated that the wells would be drilled from surface land belonging to Tihteet'aii, the Native corporation for the Birch Creek village, into subsurface land owned by Alaska Native regional corporation Doyon Limited. Data for the well permit indicates that the well would be drilled vertically. The spill response plan says that the overall exploration drilling program would be conducted during the summer, beginning this year. The plan indicates that both of Hilcorp's planned drilling sites have been cleared and leveled, and that there are helicopter landing zones in existing clearings near the sites. Access to the sites could be by helicopter, barge or skiff, depending on the weather conditions. There is a fixed-wing aircraft runway at Birch Creek.
According to a July 25 Doyon update on the project a drilling rig custom designed to operate in the Yukon Flats with minimum footprint had been transported to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula for final setup, system checks and commissioning.
"From there the rig began its journey north to the Yukon River Bridge, where it will be transported by barge and helicopter to its project site near Birch Creek," the update said.
In 2021 Hilcorp drilled 13 shallow stratigraphic test wells in the Yukon Flats Basin, to evaluate the potential for deeper exploration drilling in the basin. Some of these test wells were drilled near the now planned exploration well sites.
A major basin with oil and gas potential The Yukon Flats consist of a 11.1 million acre lowland area around the Yukon River between the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Canadian border. Although the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge encompasses much of the land in the flats, Doyon owns some blocks of subsurface land while Native village corporations, such as Tihteet'aii, own some of the surface land.
Under the surface of the flats lies the deep Yukon Flats Basin, with several sub-basins. The temperatures in these sub-basins have likely been elevated to temperatures that could result in the generation of oil and natural gas. A 2004 oil and gas assessment of the overall basin by the U.S. Geological Survey suggested that there could be up to 600 million barrels of technically recoverable oil in the basin, with a mean of about 173 million barrels. Natural gas resources could be as much as 15 trillion cubic feet. However, in the absence of exploratory drilling, it is not possible to definitively state whether there are any viably recoverable hydrocarbon resources in the basin.
On the other hand, a number of years ago consultancy firm Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska conducted an assessment that indicated that there could be an oil field on the scale of the North Slope Alpine field somewhere in the basin. Presumably, were an oilfield to be developed, oil could be delivered to market via the nearby trans-Alaska pipeline.
Doyon and Hilcorp interest Doyon has long been interested in the potential for the discovery and development of oil and gas in its subsurface land holdings in the basin. And in 2011 the Native corporation commented that seismic surveying had revealed the presence of a Birch Creek sub-basin with subsurface structures that could have trapped oil and gas. In 2019 Doyon signed an agreement with Hilcorp for renewed exploration in 1.6 million acres of Doyon owned land in the basin. Hilcorp seems to be relying on existing seismic data to identify subsurface exploration targets. However, in 2020 the company conducted an aerial gravity survey of the entire Yukon Flats basin.
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