John Hendrix's message on Oct. 3 to his fellow Alaskans: "Great day for HEX/Furie and Alaska. Jack-up rig on our platform today at 10 a.m.!! Drilling local natural gas for Alaskans!"
The Enterprise 151 is the jack-up.
The platform is the Julius R. Platform.
The field is the Kitchen Lights unit.
And long-time Alaskan John Hendrix is the owner of HEX, the parent of HEX Cook Inlet. HEX Cl is the only 100% Alaskan-owned oil and gas company currently operating in the state.
Hendrix formed the HEX companies for the purpose of purchasing Furie, its sister companies and their Cook Inlet assets -- principally to switch the Cook Inlet Kitchen Lights unit from foreign and Outside ownership to Alaska ownership. He accomplished this on June 30, 2020, making the purchase from a Delaware bankruptcy court.
In addition to the 83,000-acre Kitchen Lights unit, the assets he acquired include the JRP, a 15-mile subsea gathering line and an onshore natural gas processing facility at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula.
While the platform is the newest and smallest in Cook Inlet, the unit is the largest by acreage and is considered to have undeveloped potential for natural gas.
Drilling for natural gas from the Julius R. Platform meets the mandatory drilling conditions of the 10th plan of development that were written into the POD by Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas, which stated "Furie will drill a grassroots well or sidetrack well targeting additional gas resources during the 2024 POD," which runs from Jan. 4, 2024 to Jan. 3, 2025.
Timing of drilling
The timing of Furie Operating Alaska's drilling plans was included in the two incidental harassment authorizations (IHAs) the company received from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
These authorizations are effective from Sept. 13, 2024, through Sept. 12, 2025, for year 1 activities, and Sept. 13, 2025, through Sept. 12, 2026, for year 2 activities.
Per NMFS Furie is planning to conduct the following natural gas activities:
In year 1, Furie will relocate the Enterprise 151 jack-up production rig to the JRP site and conduct production drilling of up to two natural gas wells with the Enterprise 151 across 45--180 days.
During year 2, Furie will again relocate the Enterprise 151 rig to the JRP site and conduct additional production drilling.
Furie proposes to conduct the rig towing activities between April 1 and Nov. 15 each year, but if favorable ice conditions occur outside of that period, it may tow the rig outside of that period.
Permits, production
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission currently lists two drilling permits for Furie Operating in the Kitchen Lights unit: KLU A-4A permitted June 25, 2024, and KLU A-1A permitted Sept. 13, 2024.
In August, Furie averaged 9.745 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from two wells at Kitchen Lights, according to the most recent data available from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission -- 5.21% of inlet gas production in that month.
