PALMER -- A coal bed methane well in a Trunk Road hayfield was supposed to be producing the lucrative component of natural gas by now.
Instead the field's only sign of industry is an unfinished gravel road next to a big Fowler Oil and Gas Alaska sign announcing "Kircher Well #1" -- but there's no well, just an empty gravel pad.
Under a state permit, the company was supposed to pave the road's first 30 feet by the end of March to protect Trunk Road drivers from gravel coming off the site.
The work was never done, however, and now Developer Bob Fowler's approval to construct the road has expired, state transportation officials say. They plan to conduct site visits this week and talk to Fowler about his intentions.
Depending on his answers, the state could work with Fowler to grant an extension. Or, in a worst-case scenario, if the company makes it clear it doesn't plan to finish the road or drill the well, then the state could consider other options including removing the driveway, said Rick Feller, a state transportation spokesman.
Generally the state tries to make operators fulfill their obligations before taking any draconian measures, Feller said.
Joe Kircher, who oversees the property where Fowler has proposed drilling, isn't too concerned about the lack of progress. He figures the company's chief executive, Bob Fowler, just forgot about the road work.
Kircher e-mails occasionally with Fowler and said the executive has bigger worries: Fowler has told Kircher he is having trouble finding investors in the current economic climate and now can't say when the well might be drilled.
Fowler did not return requests for comment.
Kircher and three other farm families stand to make royalties if the well ever produces commercial quantities of gas.
"If it goes, it could be a good thing for us. I just don't want to be wishing on a star," Kircher said. "Me and (Fowler), we've gotten along well. He keeps me posted ... I understand the times and of course, oil prices have dropped. Any investor is looking at the big picture."
The well, the first of many Fowler said he hoped to sink in the Mat-Su, was hailed in 2007 as a relatively environmentally friendly way to get cheap gas to Southcentral homes and businesses.
But the company has been dogged by speculation about Fowler's finances. Most recently, in March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took action against a different company connected to Fowler called Chemfix Technologies Inc.
In 2005 Fowler acquired the publicly traded shares of the defunct Louisiana waste-handling business, according to published reports at the time. In March the SEC revoked Chemfix's registration because the company had failed since the late 1990s to file required periodic financial reports.
Locally Fowler Oil and Gas has yet to move into new offices taking up the entire top floor of the Downtown Palmer Plaza despite the company's name at the top of the building marquee. Beyond the road, Fowler Oil and Gas is under little deadline pressure. The company still has a year to drill a main bore at the Kircher field under a two-year drilling permit from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued in May 2008.
The company has until 2010 to drill a well under a Mat-Su Borough permit issued in October 2007.
Borough planner Frankie Barker said this week she hasn't heard from any Fowler representatives in about a year. The Fowler Oil and Gas Web site still says drilling was supposed to start last fall, with production commencing early this year.
Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 352-6711.
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
zhollander@adn.com