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BP works ahead for summer turnarounds Company has work scheduled this year at 3 Prudhoe Bay facilities: Central Gas Facility, Gathering Center 2 and Flow Station 3 Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
BP Exploration (Alaska) has announced $76 million in work for three turnarounds planned for Prudhoe Bay this summer, including a module for Gathering Center 2 completed at NANA’s Big Lake facility in April. Turnarounds are an opportunity for scheduled maintenance typically tied in with scheduled maintenance downtime on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
A BP presentation to Senate Resources listed major facility investments committed to safe and sustainable operations, including the $76 million in turnarounds involving more than 700 people and including the GC2 module.
The $13.5 million GC2 truckable module is a debottlenecking module that will improve gas handling capacity of an existing low pressure separator module at GC2, said information provided by BP Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience in an email.
This debottlenecking project will be installed during summer turnarounds at Prudhoe Bay, and will add some 2,000 barrels per day of oil production. The module is a pressure safety valve relief system.
The BP statement said the company continues to look for opportunities to optimize production through improving operations efficiencies and planned maintenance. Debottlenecking projects fall into three categories, the company said: debottlenecking process fluid changes (more water is now produced from Prudhoe Bay and less oil); pipeline work; and secondary recovery through improved water management.
Summer turnarounds BP has three turnarounds scheduled for Prudhoe Bay facilities this summer, the company said, including the Central Gas Facility, GC2 and Flow Station 3, with work focused on facility maintenance, vessel repairs and other improvement projects. For eight to 10 weeks, BP’s workforce on the North Slope will grow by nearly 700 people, the company said.
The GC2 turnaround activity includes module installation; installation of electric panels and wiring; installation of tie-in spools; setting of the new module; and final connection.
Compressor skids In addition to scheduled turnaround work, BP is also doing a $290 million compressor replacement project at the three Flow Stations on the eastern area of Prudhoe Bay, with the project skids also being constructed at the NANA Big Lake Facility.
This project is in the North Slope construction phase and some of the work will take place at the same time as the turnarounds to take advantage of planned plant and pipeline shutdowns.
This work will replace the gas compressors at the three Flow Stations with state-of-the-art centrifugal compressors driven by electric motors and will also include upgrades to some of the auxiliary equipment associated with the compressor train.
BP said more than 15 Alaska-based companies are involved: NANA Development Corp., NANA WorleyParsons, CH2MHill, ASRC, NANA Construction, Norcon, Udelhoven, CCI, Bell & Associates, Glacier Services, Safeway, Carlile, Peak, AE Solutions, GCI and Alaska Roteq.
Road work also planned In other North Slope work planned for this summer season, BP has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas for authorization to increase the crown width of the Spine, East Dock, West Dock and W Pad Access roads in the Prudhoe Bay unit. The increased crown width of the roads would facilitate access for drilling rigs, rig camps and heavy equipment. BP said in its project description that rigs used for existing well work are larger than the ones used when the roads were constructed. Work would be done from June to October.
Spine Road would be expanded from M Pad to Frontier Pad; West Dock Road from Flow Station 1 to East Checkpoint; East Dock Road from MCC to DS4; and the W Pad access road from Spine Road to W Pad.
BP said gravel, from the Put 23 Mine Site, will be spread by equipment working on the existing roads, so tundra travel will not be necessary.
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