With a Washington State oil and gas lease auction first slated for June 6, now postponed until July 12, energy exploration in Oregon and Washington is concentrated in geothermal activity.
The delay in holding the planned Washington auction reflects inability to arrange all necessary details as quickly as had been done in the past. Applications were received, exclusively from independents, for 14,675 acres, but of that number 700 acres are not available, leaving net acreage of 13,975.
Formal notice of the auction and firm date will be distributed by the Department of Natural Resources.
When California Energy Co. in 1989 opened a Portland, Ore., office for its new subsidiary, California Energy Exploration Co., it put fresh emphasis on the leadership CEC has taken in geothermal moves both in Oregon, where the company has been drilling exploratory wells for a number of years, and in Washington, where application has been made for 54,000 acres in the vicinity of Mt. Baker, and a similar application is pending on 41,000 acres near Mt. Adams.
Another focal point of considerable geothermal interest in Oregon is in the Alvord Desert where Anadarko Petroleum Corp. last October drilled a test well to 1,479 ft, and where the company "with a lot more work to do" has plans to drill two more test holes this summer, according to a spokesman in the company's Santa Rosa, Calif., office.
Anadarko's annual report for 1989 said of the Alvord Desert well that it was "a noteworthy geothermal energy discovery" that tested "at an average rate of 11,000 b/d, or 320 gpm of steam and water, with wellhead temperature of 305.
The company statement also said "Anadarko plans additional confirmation drilling for this field (near Fields, Ore., in the southern end of Harney County) and is conducting initial engineering studies regarding the design of a power plant at the site."
The Bureau of Land Management has cited a 1978 USGS survey estimate placing the area potential at 90-Mw of electricity over a 30-year span.
Talking with Oil & Gas Journal, Robert D. Tibbs, president of CE Exploration Co., said the Oregon-Washington Cascade Mountain region "offers a good potential" but that as yet there has been no data accumulation.
The comment was prompted by a recent assertion of the Northwest Power Planning Council that the Cascades were a possible source of "at least 1,000-Mw of geothermal electricity." The Council is federally-mandated to project on a regular basis power availability in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.
Cal Energy, which has been active in the Crater Lake area, has recently extended its search for commercial quality geothermal energy with the filing of a new well location MZ1-1, in Klamath County and it was expected that the new hole would be spudded sometime in midor late-June.
Plans for the new drill site would seem to indicate that Cal Energy was not too dismayed by "discouraging" temperature measurements in its MZ1-11A, although earlier the outlook had seemed to be better. The hole was taken down to 4,670 feet, before being suspended.
CEC also has filed for a new location, in the Bend Highlands of Deschutes County, BH7 SeNe Sec. 20, 17S, 10E, which also may be spudded this summer.
Meanwhile, Tibbs indicated, preliminary paperwork and environmental studies will be the first steps taken with respect to the Mt. Baker acreage under lease.
The seriousness of the Cal Energy commitment to geothermal energy exploration in the Northwest was underscored in the company's annual report for 1989, in which it was stated that "Over the next several years, the company anticipates spending $30,000,000 on leasehold acquisition and exploration activities" steps already under way with the leases taken and applied for in Washington.
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