Aurora finds gas on Cook Inlet's west side

Aurora Gas has discovered more gas on the west side of Cook Inlet. The company has also announced the start of production on another gas well drilled late last year.
Scoff Pfoff, the company's president, said Aurora's Koloa No. 2 well produced 10 mm cfpd of gas from four intervals in the reservoir. The well is located on a small undeveloped gas discovery made when Pan American Oil drilled searching for oil in 1967. Pan American never followed up on the development of the gas, Pfoff said.

Aurora plans to have the well in production by the end of the year, he said. No determination has been made of the extent of reserves but Aurora is building its economics for the project on the assumption that the Koloa field holds 10 bn cf of gas, which may be conservative, Pfoff said.
The new Koloa well is located one half mile from an interconnection of a pipeline built by Aurora to another well with Marathon Oil Co.'s Beluga pipeline, Pfoff said.

In a related development, Aurora said it is now producing 5 mm cfpd of gas from its Moquawkie field. The production comes after the company successfully redrilled and tested the Mobil Moquawkie No. 1 well, an old exploration well drilled years ago by Mobil Oil in a search for oil. The well encountered signs of gas which were not pursued by Mobil.
Pan American drilled its Koloa No. 1 exploration well in the Koloa field but did not find oil. The company abandoned efforts to investigate the gas that was found due to sand in the rocks breaking loose and entering the well-bore, Pfoff said. Now, 36 years later, "we have better methods for sand-control," making the prospect commercially viable, he said.

The company has several other initiatives underway, Aurora is mobilizing its Aurora Well Service Rig No. 1 to re-enter another abandoned oil well, the Texaco Long Lake No. 1 well. Unlike other old wells Aurora has re-entered, there are no confirmed signs of gas in the well because the well was never tested by Texaco. However, the geologic outlook for gas isvery favourable, Pfoff said.
The Long Lake well is five miles from other locations where Aurora has been working, he said.

The company may also drill a prospect on the east side of Cook Inlet, Pfoff said. Aurora holds acreage south of the existing Kenai Gas Field, and may re-enter and drill another abandoned old exploration well, again unsuccessfully drilled for oil.
The company is considering whether its Aurora Well Service rig can drill the east inlet prospect, which is deeper and in tighter rock formations than wells the company is drilling on the west side, where the gas reservoirs are shallower and in less consolidated rock formations.