Doyon, Hilcorp take new look at Interior oil, gas
Doyon, Ltd. of Fairbanks and Hil- corp Energy are taking a fresh look at unexplored sedimentary basins in In- terior Alaska, hoping to find oil and gas deposits. Previous efforts have been unsuccessful but new geochem- istry data indicates the presence of oil and seismic surveys have identified possible reservoir traps. Hilcorp is working with Doyon Ltd., the Alaska Native regional corporation for northern Alaska, which owns land and mineral rights. Hilcorp is a major oil and gas producer in both the Cook Inlet and the North Slope. Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas has issued a drilling permit to Hil- corp for its Canvasback 4A exploration well, which will be drilled about 10 miles west of the small village of Birch Creek, which is near the Yukon River. Doyon owns the subsurface miner- al while Tihteet’aii, the small Alaska Native village corporation for Birch Creek, owns the surface lands. The well will be drilled in summer with operations beginning this year, Hil- corp told the Division of Oil and Gas. A drill rig is being moved from Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, to the Yukon River on the Dalton Highway. It will then be transported by barge east to the drill site near Birch Creek. Doyon has been interested in the oil and gas potential of the Yukon Flats for decades. The basin covers more than 11 million acres between the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline to the west and the Canadian border to the east. The Trans Alaska Pipeline Sys- tem (TAPS) transects the western part of the basin, providing a way to move any oil discovered to market. The area is also on the route of a proposed 800-mile natural gas pipeline
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Photo Courtesy Doyon, Ltd.
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