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AOGCC approves spacing exception for new CINGSA gas storage well
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska received a well spacing exception from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Oct. 9 for one of two storage injection/withdrawal wells, CLU S-6, that the company has permitted at its facility at the Kenai Cannery Loop unit where the company has five existing wells.
Earlier in the year CINGSA received permission for the two additional wells from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, an approval required because CINGSA is a utility regulated by RCA.
In April the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas approved the 2024 lease plan of development for CINGSA at state lease ADL 391627, a plan which includes drilling two wells CLU S-6 (permitted by AOGCC in September) and CLU S-7 (permitted by AOGCC in August).
The division said CINGSA's 2024 plans include adding the two wells, a second purification/DEHY train and an expansion of the compressor building to allow for addition of two more engine/compressor skids. CINGSA told the division that the work would provide expanded storage and throughput, "while making us more reliable to meet the Greater Cook Inlet gas supply needs now and in the future."
In its approval AOGCC said the well would be drilled, tested and operated as a storage injection/withdrawal well in the Sterling C Gas Storage Pool at the Cannery Loop unit within 1,500 feet of a property line where owners are not the same on both sides of the line. The commission said a portion of property outside boundaries of the CINGSA storage reservoir is owned by Cook Inlet Region Inc. and is within 1,500 feet of CLU S-6. The well "targets discontinuous channel sands in the Sterling C that may have limited or poor connectivity to the existing CINGSA gas storage wells and likely could not be accessed by a well which confirms to the spacing restrictions," AOGCC said.
The commission found that an exception to spacing provisions of 20 AAC 25.055 was necessary to allow drilling, testing and operation of the well, and said that if constructed and operated as required, the well "will not cause waste or result in an increased risk of fluid movement into freshwater."
--KRISTEN NELSON
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