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Hilcorp jack-up rig
ADEC issues preliminary approval to move Spartan 151 jack-up to Tyonek Platform
Steve Sutherlin Petroleum News
Hilcorp Alaska LLC is advancing its plan to move the Spartan 151 jack-up rig to the Tyonek platform in the North Cook Inlet unit, approximately 40 miles west-southwest of Anchorage in 100 feet of water at mean lower low water.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issued a public notice Oct. 5 that it has made a preliminary decision to approve Hilcorp’s application for an air quality control minor permit Hilcorp submitted March 18 for authorization to relocate the rig.
The company told Petroleum News Oct. 7 that it had no comment on the timing of the rig move or its current plans for the rig. A Petroleum News source said the rig mobilization could take place in spring 2021.
In previous public filings, Hilcorp has indicated potential operations that may involve the use of a jack-up rig.
The company said it has prepared an initial plan of development, or POD, for a known oil pool below the North Cook Inlet gas field. In its 2019 POD for the North Cook Inlet unit, Hilcorp told the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas that it anticipated drilling the first development well from the Tyonek platform in 2020.
ARCO Alaska discovered oil in a major geologic anticline under the gas field in the early 1990s.
Phillips Petroleum conducted appraisal drilling in 1998 into the oil accumulation, termed Tyonek Deep, but the company put the project on hold in 1999 due to low oil prices.
Phillips said that it had tested two wells in the oil pool and installed completion tubing in a third well, but the development never proceeded.
Hilcorp laid a new subsea oil pipeline from the Tyonek platform to the Inlet’s west side in 2018. One of the twin subsea Cook Inlet Gas Gathering System pipelines was converted from the carriage of gas to the carriage of oil.
A July 2019 ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration listed a North Cook Inlet unit well plugging and abandonment.
The 90-day operation, originally planned for April through October 2020, listed noise sources to include a jack-up rig, tugboats, a support vessel, and helicopters.
The ruling issued regulations to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to oil and gas activities of Hilcorp Alaska LLC in Cook Inlet over the course of five years, effective from July 30, 2019, to July 30, 2024.
Incremental emission increase Total emissions from the Tyonek Platform are 695.006 tons per year, which includes an increase in volatile organic compound emission of 0.006 tons per year from the relocation of the Spartan 151 to the platform, the AEDC said in the notice.
The emission unit inventory of the Spartan 151 consists of non-road engines and fuel tanks, the department said. To protect the 1-hour, 3-hour, 24-hour, and annual SO2 Alaska Ambient Air Quality Standards, the sulfur content of the liquid fuel burned by the Spartan 151 EUs is limited to no more than 15 parts per million by weight.
The preliminary permit and technical analysis report are available at ADEC’s website: http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/Air/airtoolsweb/AirPermitsApprovalsAndPublicNotices/
Address written statements or requests to Brian Hirsch at ADEC, by mail to PO Box 111800, Juneau, AK 99811, by facsimile at (907) 465-5129 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Comments must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 4.
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