Since Apache Corp. started buying leases in Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin in July 2010, the company has wasted no time in moving ahead with an ambitious exploration program, seeking new oil resources to re-invigorate the region’s sagging oil production.
In April and May 2011 the company shot some test seismic on the west side of the inlet, trying out new nodal seismic technology that does not require the laying of seismic cables. And, having met with success in that test, in the fall of 2011 the company embarked on a 3-D seismic survey covering a swath of land near Tyonek, also on the west side of the inlet. Apache is now extending that survey out into the offshore and plans to drill two exploration wells on the west side of the inlet, starting this fall, John Hendrix, general manager of Apache Alaska Corp., told Petroleum News June 7.
“It shows the type of a track record that Apache has not only set but will continue to maintain going forward,” said Lisa Parker, Apache Alaska’s manager, government relations , reflecting on the speed with which the company has progressed its Cook Inlet program.
Moving offshore
Following the onshore surveying in the Tyonek area, the survey operation is now starting to move into the offshore, working back and forth between the onshore survey area and leases held by Furie Operating Alaska in the middle of the inlet, Hendrix explained.
Apache had considered starting its exploration drilling program with one well on the west side of the inlet and one well on the east side. But, not yet having gathered seismic on the east side, the company has decided to drill both wells on the west side, with drilling expected to start in the fall. Apache wants good quality 3-D seismic to identify drilling targets, rather than attempting to use old 2-D data, Hendrix said.
“We’re going to shoot good quality 3-D seismic and use that information to help us determine the right bottom-hole locations,” he said.
Given the tight schedule for initiating the drilling, Apache is expediting the processing of the seismic data that it is gathering while also starting the permitting of its wells.
“We have a few prospects lined up … but we have to start the permitting process as we further define the interpretation of the seismic,” Hendrix said. “I anticipate we’re going to be drilling by September.”
Apache is bringing in the Akita 61 drilling rig from Canada for the drilling, with the rig being contracted through Doyon Drilling, an Alaska drilling company, Hendrix said.
Parker said that surveyors are already out in the field identifying potential sites for gravel drilling pads.
Deep wells
Once the drilling targets are more clearly defined using the new seismic, it may be necessary to drill deviated wells to reach those targets from the pads, Hendrix said. Apache plans to drill to below the Jurassic, underneath the Tertiary strata of the basin, seeking oil in both the Tertiary and the older rocks. That may mean drilling to depths of around 16,000 feet in the prospect areas, although the seismic survey was designed to accommodate drilling down to 20,000 feet, Hendrix said.
“We don’t want anybody coming back behind us and saying ‘look what I’ve got,’” Hendrix said. “You’re down there. You’re drilling. You might as well go the extra mile, or a thousand feet, or whatever it is.”
For many years people have speculated about the possibility of finding pre-Tertiary oil in the Cook Inlet basin — the oil in the Tertiary reservoirs of the current oil fields originated in the Jurassic.
“We’re writing the book on the subsurface seismic, the subsurface geology of the Cook Inlet,” Hendrix said. “It’s never been written before.”
The seismic should provide confidence in deciding where to drill, whether into a structure large enough to warrant a standalone development or whether into something than can be developed quickly, close to existing infrastructure, he said.
East side
The seismic surveying that Apache has embarked on forms part of a major three-year seismic program that the company plans to carry out across large areas of the Cook Inlet basin. To plan and conduct this program, the company has divided the Cook Inlet area into nine planning regions, although it may be advantageous to combine more than one region into a single seismic permit, Hendrix said.
Having started in an area on the west side of the inlet, the company plans to start a major 3-D seismic survey on the east side, starting in September and covering a broad area of land on the southern Kenai Peninsula as well as a three mile offshore fairway, from Anchor Point up to Kasilof.
Apache is using a survey technique in which each seismic recorder works within its own sealed node, each node independently recording the sound signals from the seismic sound source while using global positioning system technology and satellite-based timing to accurately position and time the recording. There is no need for cabling to connect seismic receivers to some central recording system. After use, the data are downloaded from each node into a computer system for data storage and processing.
The nodes used for a land survey weigh about five pounds each and are about the size of a large food can; they are carried to and from location by backpack. And with no cabling involved, it is not necessary to cut seismic trails through forest and other vegetation. The absence of cabling also makes it very straightforward to conduct a survey in an area where there is a building or other structure.
The system is very non-invasive for landowners, Hendrix said.
It is also fast to use.
“We’re in and out of a square mile area every day,” Hendrix said.
Offshore technique
Offshore, the nodes are disc shaped, tethered along lines lying on the seafloor. Placing the recorders on the seafloor, rather than towing them behind a seismic vessel at the surface, should result in better quality data than from a traditional marine survey, Hendrix said. That should enable Apache to differentiate detail previously unseen in the subsurface geology, he said.
The strings of nodes are laid parallel to the tidal currents, to minimize the shifting of the nodes under the effects of those currents. A surface vessel uses sound signals to verify the positions of the nodes once they have been laid.
But exceptionally strong tidal currents, shifting boulders the size of beat-up buses along the seafloor and potentially lifting and moving the seismic nodes, make offshore seismic in the Cook Inlet especially challenging, Hendrix said.
“The (Cook Inlet) seismic is probably the most challenging in the world,” he said.
But these very challenges attract high-caliber personnel.
“We’ve had a lot of people wanting to join our seismic team because they’re attracted by the challenges: the tides, the weather conditions,” Hendrix said.
Working with communities
Although Apache is moving rapidly ahead with its exploration, the company is very cognizant of the need to work with other people and groups in the region. For example, the company has been meeting with fishing organizations, to listen to their concerns and to try to address those concerns, Hendrix said. The company has conducted presentations about its plans and operations to communities across the Kenai Peninsula, at places such as Kenai, Soldotna, Homer and Nikolaevsk, he said.
The company has also been working with Native corporations, Native villages and Native organizations.
“We’re always talking with people. The phone lines are always open,” Hendrix said.
In fact, Hendrix thinks that gaining the alignment of all people in Alaska over oil exploration and development is one of the main challenges that his company faces.
“Working together, diligently, we can be successful,” he said.
Commitment
At the same time, Apache’s lease position, as the largest leaseholder in the Cook Inlet basin, tells something about the company’s long-term commitment to Alaska exploration, Hendrix said.
“Apache wants to be here 30 years from now,” he said, commenting that Apache is a large independent oil company with the resources to stay the course in Alaska. “You don’t come in and buy this much acreage with a short-sighted plan. We’re not a one-well wonder and we don’t have to bet the farm on one well. … It’s a proven basin and we think it’s been underexplored. But it’s not an easy basin. It’s a very complex basin. It’s very complex to drill and it’s very complex from the geology (standpoint).”
But the company likes what it has seen so far in its exploration efforts.
“We’re encouraged,” Hendrix said. “Apache is excited about being here and we’re excited that Alaskans like us here … we want to be the oil company of choice in the Cook Inlet and we want eventually to be the oil company of choice for Alaska. I think it’s the right timing for Apache and the right timing for Alaskans for Apache to be here.”
