Cook Inlet in south-east Alaska is a known hydrocarbon province with significant proven reserves of oil and gas, but in recent years has been an area of low exploration activity. The low activity levels are in part due to the difficulties of acquiring seismic data in this harsh regulatory and physical environment; Cook Inlet is the critical habitat for the endangered Beluga Whale and home to the second-highest tidal range in the world, with a mean tidal range of 30 feet in places, and seismic operations are impacted by the currents that result.
In March and April 2011, Apache successfully carried out a 2-D seismic acquisition test program to investigate the feasibility of a regional multi-mode 3-D seismic program to image the deep geological structures beneath Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
