ConocoPhillips plans Kuparuk road upgrades

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

ConocoPhillips Alaska has filed an amendment to its plan of operations for the Kuparuk River unit, signaling the company’s intent to make improvements to the unit’s gravel roads. Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas has publicly noticed the company’s proposal and invited public comments.

The company wants to upgrade about 26 miles of roadway over a five-year period. Upgrades would primarily involve increasing the road widths to about 35 feet, about 6.5 feet above the ground surface. A side of a road may be extended by one foot to 20 feet. The upgrades would apply to both main roads and drill site access roads. There would be about 48 acres of total new road footprint, with the toe-to-toe width of the gravel road structures varying between 61 and 81 feet, depending on the terrain.

Total gravel requirements would be 1.3 million cubic yards, with about 293,000 cubic yards used to widen the road footprints and the remainder being placed on top of the road structures.

- ALAN BAILEY