The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas has opened a public comment period for a project proposed by Hilcorp Alaska, LLC to drill eight stratigraphic test wells on State of Alaska subsurface leases on the southern Kenai Peninsula, according to an online notice published last month.

All comments must be in writing and received by the Division by 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 17. Comments may be sent to the Division of Oil and Gas by email to dog.permitting@alaska.gov, or mailed to 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1100, Anchorage, AK 99501. A copy of the final decision will be sent to any person who provides written comments, the notice states.

The project is currently scheduled to begin this month and end in August.

If approved, the project would take place “in the Ninilchik and Anchor Point areas on State of Alaska subsurface land.” Four wells are proposed to be drilled on private surface lands, one well on land owned by the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and three wells on land owned by the State of Alaska.

According to the project description, each well would be drilled to an “approximate” depth of 600 feet. Drill cuttings would be contained in a portable tank and disposed of at the grind-and-inject facility in the Hilcorp Kenai gas field. Samples would be collected at 30-foot intervals of the wellbores for evaluation. The test wells would be plugged and abandoned “to the satisfaction of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the landowner” after evaluation. Equipment used for the project would include a truck-mounted water well rig, a vacuum truck and a flatbed truck. The footprint at each site would be approximately 35 feet by 70 feet.

The application package is available online at aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/View.aspx?id=215437.