Hilcorp gets IHS needed to move jack-up

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

On Sept. 24 the National Marine Fisheries Service issued an incidental harassment authorization to Hilcorp Alaska for the incidental harassment of marine mammals in Cook Inlet during production drilling support activities.

The agency said it previously issued two consecutive IHAs to Hilcorp for similar work in 2022.

This work includes the use of three tugboats to tow and hold and up to four tugboats to position a jack-up rig to support development drilling at existing platforms.

The new IHA, which covers Sept. 24 through Sept. 23, 2025, is for work which would occur on six non-consecutive days during a one-year period, NMFS said, in middle Cook Inlet and Trading Bay, and include one demobilization of the Spartan 151 or equivalent rig from an existing platform to Rig Tenders Dock in Nikiski, one jack-up rig relocation between existing platforms and one remobilization effort from Rig Tenders Dock in Nikiski to middle Cook Inlet. The IHA is for noise produced by tugs under load with a jack-up, which "may result in take, by Level B harassment, of 12 marine animal species." The issue here is noise from the tugs while they are towing the jack-up.

The IHA has a potential one-time, one-year renewal.

Hilcorp has drilling permits from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for one well at McArthur River and three at North Cook Inlet. In other offshore work planned, Furie, which has received an IHA, has two drilling permits at Kitchen Lights, one for a new well and one for a sidetrack.

--KRISTEN NELSON