Olgoonik Construction Services has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for approval of the construction of an ice pad and associated ice road, for staging equipment needed for the plugging and abandoning of five legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the coming winter.
The planned pad and road would be on state land adjacent the Meltwater 2P pad.
The P&A work comes as part of a multi-year program being conducted by the federal Bureau of Land Management to deal with wells in the NPR-A that were drilled by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey between 1944 and 1982 - many of the wells were not properly plugged. BLM has contracted Olgoonik to conduct this winter's well remediation work.
The five wells that Olgoonik plans to tackle are the Wolf Creek Nos. 1 to 3, the Titaluk No. 1 and the Square Lake No. 1.
The wells were drilled by the U.S. Navy in 1951 and 1952. In addition to properly plugging and abandoning the wells, the work will include the remediation of drilling and non-drilling waste; field sampling and reporting; and the cleanup and disposal of surface debris, the plan says.
- ALAN BAILEY
See story in Oct. 15 issue, available online Friday, Oct. 13 at www.PetroleumNews.com
