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Is CBM a possibility at Hilcorp's Seaview? New well may be drilled
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska is continuing to study its best options forward at Seaview, the newest and most southerly of the company's onshore Cook Inlet natural gas fields, which produced from June 2021 through August 2022 and has been shut-in since.
Hilcorp filed its fifth plan of development for Seaview with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas on May 1. The 2024 POD is effective Aug. 1 through July 31, 2025.
In its 2023 POD, Hilcorp said it would evaluate additional perforations at the Seaview 9 well, one of two wells at the field. It also targeted a coalbed methane injectivity test at the well, which "could include perforating and testing" CBM opportunities.
The company said it was continuing to evaluate installation of a new compressor at the Seaview Pad and said that decision would be determined by other opportunities to install compression during the 2023 POD period.
2023 work In discussing work accomplished under the 2023 POD, Hilcorp said the seismic line it acquired from Seaview north to Ninilchik along the Sterling Highway was outside the Seaview participating area but "will improve understanding of the overall structure" for both the Seaview and Whiskey Gulch areas "for future development and exploration." Whiskey Gulch is north of Seaview.
Hilcorp said it did not replace the Seaview Pad compressor as other compression opportunities took precedence, did not add perforations to Seaview No. 9 and did not perform an injectivity test in the well.
2024 plans In its 2024 POD, Hilcorp said it is planning shallow stratigraphic test wells in the area "to understand the structural relation between Seaview and Whiskey Gulch." While those test wells would be outside the Seaview unit, they would improve the company's understanding of the structure in the Seaview and Whiskey Gulch area "for future development and exploration."
Hilcorp said it was evaluating drilling a new Seaview well "to test sands shallower than what is accessible in the current wellbores."
Additional perforations in both Seaview 8 and Seaview 9 are being considered, work which could require a rig workover.
Hilcorp said it is collecting CBM data in the region and that data will affect plans for the existing wells at the unit, Seaview 8 and Seaview 9. The potential for collecting data and testing for CBM potential in either Seaview 8 or Seaview 9 will be evaluated, work which "could involve a workover, perforations, injection test and production."
On the facilities side, the company said it "will pursue facility improvements through various well, infrastructure and facility repairs, as needed, which may include facilities for testing CBM wells (Separators, pumps, compressors, etc.)."
Surveys in 2015 Seaview was the first new field Hilcorp brought online after it began operating in Alaska in 2012, becoming the company's 16th Cook Inlet field.
Hilcorp said when it filed for a Seaview unit in 2020 that exploration activities began in the area in 2015 with an aerial gravity and magnetics survey, followed by acquisition of 20.54 miles of 2D seismic in 2016 and seven shallow stratigraphic test holes in 2017. Seaview 8, the discovery well, drilled in 2018 and tested in 2019, found gas in the Tyonek formation.
Production was initially planned to begin in 2020, but there were construction delays on the 2-mile pipeline needed to connect Seaview to Enstar's gas transmission line. Horizontal directional drilling was required for two crossings of the Anchor River, and that work was not completed until the summer of 2021.
The second well, Seaview 9, was drilled in 2021, following stratigraphic tests in 2019 and 2020.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records show 2021-22 production from Seaview totaled 181,887 thousand cubic feet, all from Seaview 8, the discovery well. Seaview 9 has not been brought online and the field has now produced since 2022.
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