Corps looks at Hilcorp's Ivan River drilling pad expansion plan

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Hilcorp Alaska has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expand the Ivan River unit pad on the west side of Cook Inlet near Beluga. The Corps said the expansion would make a larger working area available for current and future natural gas development.

Some 14,100 cubic yards of gravel fill would be discharged, with permanent impacts to 2.1 acres of wetland.

A pad plan shows the planned expansion area on the southeast and southwest sides of the existing pad.

The Corps issued the public notice Jan. 17 with comments due Feb. 17.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas approved the pad expansion plan, a plan of operations amendment, on Oct. 15, noting that it received no comments when the work after the work was public noticed in September.

Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission production data for November, the most recent available, show Ivan River averaging 1,131 thousand cubic feet per day from a single well, compared to 3,820 mcf per day in November 2023 from three wells.

In its current plan of development, covering June 2024, through May 2025, Hilcorp said that it sees the possibility of drilling a grassroots well, but said "additional pad/facility work may be needed during the 2024 POD period to support drilling."

--KRISTEN NELSON