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Companies start pre-packing ice roads Snow on the North Slope is deeper than normal but soil temperatures remain above freezing as winter drilling season approaches Alan Bailey Petroleum News
With greater than normal depths of snow on the tundra of Alaska’s North Slope, companies have started pre-packing ice road routes, in preparation for ice road construction for this winter’s off-road drilling operations, Melissa Head, manager of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Northern Oil and Gas Team, told Petroleum News in a Nov. 5 email.
The Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, has approved planned pre-packing activities by Savant Alaska, Pioneer Natural Resources, Repsol, ConocoPhillips and Linc Energy, Head said. Savant is presumably planning to drill in the Badami field this winter, while the other four companies are known to have exploration drilling plans.
Standard technique Ice roads, constructed after winter temperatures have dropped to suitably low levels, have become the standard means of transporting massive drilling rigs to remote sites on the Slope without damaging the delicate tundra. The roads melt during the summer, leaving little or no trace of their brief existence.
Road construction proper cannot start until DNR determines that the snow is deep enough and the ground sufficiently frozen to allow off-road travel by vehicles otherwise restricted to on-road operation. But it has become a common practice to use tundra-certified vehicles to pre-pack the snow along a road route and spray the route with water, thus preventing wind from blowing snow back off the route, speeding up the freezing of the ground and providing maximum protection to the tundra.
Pre-packing gives companies a head start on road construction, shortening the time required for construction after the tundra opening: The less time required for road construction, the more time becomes available for drilling wells in the relatively short winter drilling season.
Not frozen yet Because of high snow depths, soil temperatures remain above freezing at the moment, Head said.
“To open the tundra to general winter off-road travel snow depths must reach 6 inches in the coastal areas and 9 inches in the (Brooks Range) foothills, and soil temperatures must reach -5 C at 30 centimeters below the tundra surface,” Head said.
In a notice to North Slope operators issued on Oct. 25, DNR said that it may allow standard ice-road construction to start on pre-packed routes before the general opening of winter tundra travel, if the department determines that required criteria for opening have been attained along the road route.
Four areas For the purpose of managing winter tundra travel, DNR has subdivided state land north of the Brooks Range into four areas: the western coastal area, the eastern coast area, the lower foothills and the upper foothills. At present all four areas remain closed to general off-road travel.
DNR’s Northern Oil and Gas Team is currently on the North Slope assessing conditions and will issue a status report by Nov. 9, Head said.
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