The project, named “Endeavor 1,” is a joint venture involving Aurora Gas and Swift Energy Company, two companies based in Houston, Texas. Seismic records indicate the results could be worth their effort.

“That doesn’t mean we’ll find it, but that’s why we’re drilling there,” Jones said.

Drilling on the project is being done by Alaska contractor Kuukpik Drilling, headquartered in Anchorage. Another contractor, Schlumberger, is in charge of the cement work and well logging.

“Many of the people are local peninsula people,” Jones said of the crew of approximately 20 currently on site. “Some are staying in Anchor Point, some are driving up the road a little and actually live in Ninilchik, Soldotna and Kenai. We don’t expect to be there too long.”

Anchor River Inn is currently providing 15 rooms and meals for project employees.

“The guys are all real nice,” said Randie Adams, a server in Anchor River Inn’s restaurant.

Results of the project are expected by the end of April.

“Because it is an exploratory well, confidentiality is involved and I don’t know how much we’ll be able to tell the community yet,” Jones said. “Seismic data indicates the area of the potential reservoir is fairly large. If this is a discovery, then we would expect it to be large enough to be commercial. Hopefully we’ve done our homework so we can make that determination fairly quickly.”

If their homework is accurate and oil or gas is found, a second well will be considered on a drilling pad approximately a mile from the current site.

“That would help us apprise what we have,” Jones said.

What to do with the oil or gas, if found, is another question.

“We’ll have to look at that as we get close,” Jones said. “The oil would obviously go to the Tesoro refinery in Nikiski. How we’ll get it there will depend on how much there is, how much we can produce.”

Aurora currently is operating 12 wells on the west side of Cook Inlet, in the Tyonek and Beluga area, with more wells planned. The Anchor Point well is their first on the Kenai Peninsula, and more are being considered.

“We have some acreage under lease, some prospects, but don’t have any immediate plans to do anything with these right now,” Jones said of areas closer to Kenai.

For now, Aurora Gas and Swift Energy are hoping to beat the odds.

“We’re obviously drilling because we think it’s a good shot, but the statistics prove out most such wells are not productive,” Jones said. “We’re taking our chance, but everything we see is encouraging.”