40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Innovator from the first

Richfield tackled challenges that it faced exploring for petroleum in Alaska by using latest technology to get the job done

By C.G. “Gil” Mull

For Petroleum News

Thinking about the legacy of Richfield Oil Co., it seems to me that it was characterized by a tradition of innovation in Alaska. For example, the discovery well at Swanson River in 1957 was drilled on an anticline that was discovered by a seismic survey — but a survey that was done with seismic equipment that was transported by helicopter.

I don’t know for certain, but I have a hunch that that might have been the first time that a seismic survey was conducted in Alaska using a helicopter to move equipment to otherwise inaccessible areas. The area selected for the seismic survey was based on some cool deductions made by Richfield geologist Frank Tolman from aerial photos of the Kenai Lowlands that showed what appeared to be an anomalous stream drainage pattern. This pattern suggested the presence of a topographic high area. In the early days in California, a number of oil fields had been found on anticlines that formed topographic high areas. I suspect that other people had used aerial photographs to do geology in Alaska before, but at the time … it was pretty bold to go out to expend the money to run a seismic survey by helicopter based on not much more than photo geology and the knowledge that there were oil seeps clear on the other side of Cook Inlet.

In addition, my understanding is that the total seismic survey was an extremely loose survey that consisted only of scattered shots to provide strike and dip control and did not have the sort of conventional lines that would normally have been shot before a well was programmed. The seismic survey confirmed Tolman’s deduction, and the first well drilled on the high was the Swanson River discovery. In other words, it was a pretty bold step on the part of Richfield management to drill a well on such meager data — most companies would not have been so bold. But it worked.

An offshore well that Richfield drilled in the early 1960s at Wide Bay on the Alaska Peninsula was drilled from a platform on pilings. I am sure this also was a first for Alaska — also using a technique developed in California many years back.

Another definite first was the mobilization of an entire drilling rig and camp by air. No one had ever thought of doing all that by air before. All the previous drilling rigs on the North Slope were taken up by barge and moved cross country by land during the winter.

Flying the rig up to the North Slope was a Richfield innovation that took a fair amount of doing, because first the permission to use a C-130 Hercules had to be obtained from the Defense Department­ — it had previously been strictly a military plane.

So the whole operation went in by air to Sagwon in something over 80 trips from Fairbanks using the C-130 leased from Lockheed, and some other cargo planes.

Another aspect of Richfield’s successful operations was its reliance on the recommendations of its younger employees. It was not overloaded with layers of management, thus, the opinions and recommendations from the working stiffs in the trenches often went straight to the top as was evident in the use Harry Jamison made of the information from the surface geological party.