Hilcorp

In a Resources Committee meeting Wednesday, Enstar said utilities will need to look to import natural gas, which won't be available until 2030, while producers including Hilcorp told legislators about their challenges extracting gas in Cook Inlet.

Hilcorp Alaska and HEX Cook Inlet were the two bidders in a royalty-free lease sale that state officials hoped would incentivize production in the inlet. It described the outcome of the sale as "promising."

Alaska’s largest utilities are mostly dependent on natural gas from Cook Inlet. In this four-part series, we take a look at how now, with just years until demand is expected to outpace supply, they’ll need to figure out new ways to get power — and time is running out.

The unit the line is attached to hasn’t been producing oil since 2021. Hilcorp, meanwhile, is looking at turning some nearby platforms into renewable energy research sites.

The company is planning to add three wells — two gas development wells and one combination gas development and oil exploration well — to its Ninilchik pad.

Hilcorp applied in early February to drill three new wells on the Paxton and Pearl Pads in Ninilchik following the discovery of more gas in the area.

The oil and gas company announced last spring it might not be able to meet utilities' natural gas needs beyond the next contract cycle. Now, it's testing tidal technology from its old oil and gas platforms.

Industry watchers say the lukewarm response to the hotly contested sale points to a long-term trend of low interest in the inlet's federal waters.

On the southern peninsula, where Hilcorp does lots of oil and gas exploration, not all private property owners are content to lease the company their mineral rights. Some of Hilcorp’s neighbors in Ninilchik are rejecting the company’s offers for the gas beneath their land.

The company is already producing gas from the SeaView 8 unit, near Anchor Point, and is in the process of connecting SeaView 9. It’s also doing exploratory drilling work just north of Ninilchik and last year applied to drill two gas exploration wells in Whiskey Gulch.