Doyon to conduct survey in Yukon Flats

Doyon Ltd. the Native regional corporation for the Alaska interior, will shoot a 3-D seismic survey in the Stevens Village area of the Yukon Flats this winter, James Mery, Doyon’s senior vice president, land and natural resources, told Petroleum News in a Dec. 12 email. SAExploration will conduct the survey, which will cover an area of about 50 square miles, Mery said.

For a number of years Doyon has been investigating the resource potential of the Yukon Flats basin, a sediment-filled depression in the Earth’s crust between the trans-Alaska pipeline and the Canadian border. The corporation thinks that the basin has significant potential for holding both oil and gas resources. And new assessments of geophysical data for the basin have revealed the existence of several sub-basins within the main basin.

Doyon had decided to conduct a new seismic survey in the basin this winter but had not determined which of the sub-basins to tackle: The corporation was considering a reconnaissance 2-D survey over a sub-basin near the village of Birch Creek, or a more focused 3-D survey at Stevens Village, where the corporation has already shot a 2-D reconnaissance survey. The corporation has now opted for the Stevens Village survey, which, the corporation has said, would be used to identify specific drilling targets.

—Alan Bailey