Photos accompanying the release show the rig in place at the Point Thomson pad on the eastern side of Alaska’s North Slope.

ExxonMobil said the rig, owned by Nabors Alaska, was moved from Deadhorse to the drilling site in modules, some weighing more than 1 million pounds.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin provided the move date on the modules when she said April 10 that equipment was “rolling down the ice road today” on the way to Point Thomson.

“We are moving forward with drilling and development activities at Point Thomson,” Craig Haymes, Alaska production manager for ExxonMobil, said in the company’s statement.

He credited state and federal agencies with working “tirelessly” to process permits necessary to allow drilling to begin, and said the company is on schedule to begin production by year-end 2014.

“Construction crews recently completed the final installation of camps and support facilities at the existing gravel pad to accept the rig,” Haymes said.

See full story in April 26 issue, available online at noon, Friday April 24 at www.PetroleumNews.com