BlueCrest Alaska Operating, the company with the largest known underdeveloped structure in the Cook Inlet basin, has filed to amend its Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan in preparation for drilling in 2023.
“We are getting ready for the next phase in our drilling campaign. The amended C-plan accommodates the larger oil production anticipated from the new wells,” John M. Martineck told Petroleum News in late December.
(See well diagram in online issue PDF)
The first well the company plans to drill is the H10 Trident Fishbone.
“This multi-lateral well allows BlueCrest to drill the equivalent of 21-24 wells on 800-foot spacings,” Martineck said. “The H10 well will provide a good representation of the reservoir in this location.”
The H10 Trident’s target is oil with associated natural gas.
In the next 4 years the state of Alaska and the inlet’s current largest producer Hilcorp predicts there will be a shortage of natural gas produced from Cook Inlet.
“BlueCrest has a large Tyonek gas reservoir that is untapped. We need to begin work on this offshore gas project now to have gas in two or three years,” Martineck told Petroleum News in October, adding that development would involve putting in a new platform and pipeline in the Cook Inlet.
Uptick in interest from investors
BlueCrest’s plans are contingent on funding.
“We’ve been actively pursuing funding for this project. We have received a lot more interest in funding the project in the last few months,” he said.
“We’ve been talking to multiple folks. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t talk to other people,” Martineck said.
“This is a good supply of natural gas for Cook Inlet. The fact is Southcentral Alaska users have been consuming gas faster than companies can produce it.”
Success story
BlueCrest is viewed as a Cook Inlet success story, with a reputation for always meeting its work, environmental and financial commitments to the state of Alaska, the community, its employees and contractors.
The Cosmopolitan unit (Hansen field) is located 3 miles offshore the southern Kenai Peninsula and 5 miles north of the community of Anchor Point.
Accessed from its onshore pad using directional drilling, production is primarily oil but there is an associated gas component to it.
Production is processed on site and oil is trucked off location for sale, while BlueCrest sells its natural gas to local utilities for use in the local market
The company also owns its own drilling rig, which will be used for the H10 Trident well.
As of the end of September, Cosmopolitan had cumulatively produced 1.91 million barrels of oil and 8.42 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Parent BlueCrest Energy is a privately held oil and gas development company based in Fort Worth, Texas.
Subsidiary BlueCrest Alaska Operating has a local office in Anchorage.
