Oil and gas company Hex LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, announced it has acquired a 190' offshore supply vessel to support its Cook Inlet operations.
The vessel, named C Atlantis, was acquired from an affiliate of Edison Chouest Offshore, Cut Off, La., and is now owned by Hex subsidiary Atlantis LLC.
Homeported in Homer, Alaska, the 1,335-grt vessel will support operations at Hex's Allegra Leigh offshore platform in the Kitchen Lights Unit, a Cook Inlet natural gas field. It will also be available for additional commercial work.
The 190'x44'x19' C Atlantis was built in 2000 by Edison Chouest Offshore and its subsidiary North American Shipbuilding LLC, Larose, La. It features dynamic positioning (DP1) and a cargo deck area of 4,515 sq. ft., with a top speed of 13.2 knots.
The vessel departed Port Fourchon, La., carrying supplies for natural gas drilling operations. It recently transited the Panama Canal en route to Alaska, where it is expected to arrive by mid-July.
Day-to-day management of the C Atlantis will be handled by Fortune Sea Management LLC, Homer, through its newly established maritime division.
"Reliable marine services are essential to safe and responsible operations in Cook Inlet," John Hendrix, Hex president and CEO, said in a press release. "We're excited to work with a fellow Alaskan-owned business, Fortune Sea Management, whose vessel management expertise will help ensure continued, dependable service to Cook Inlet's critical infrastructure that keeps natural gas flowing for Alaskans."
Hex officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Cook Inlet basin is the sole domestic supplier of natural gas to the Railbelt, the population corridor running from Fairbanks through Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula. The region relies on natural gas for more than 70% of its electric and heating needs, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
However, the basin's fields are aging, and state forecasters have warned that supply could fall short of demand as soon as 2027 without significant new development.
Hex is currently producing from two wells in Cook Inlet, and the company plans to drill two additional wells this year.
In its most recent assessment, conducted in 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that about 19 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas remains undiscovered in the Cook Inlet region, suggesting significant long-term potential for the basin.
