BP expanding two Milne Point pads

Small gravel extensions would accommodate larger rigs used on the North Slope since operations began at C Pad, L Pad in 1980s

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. wants to slightly expand two pads at the Milne Point unit to accommodate the increasingly larger drilling rigs in use on the Alaska North Slope.

The project involves adding some 45 feet between the wellhead and the edge of two drilling pads. The expansion would give larger rigs more room to move and increase the space available for emergency vehicles to pass around the rigs. While the current configuration of the pads allows for 100 feet, the expansion would allow for 145 feet.

BP wants to expand C Pad and L Pad at the unit. The predecessor operators to BP first permitted the drilling pads in the early 1980s — C Pad in 1981 and L Pad in 1983.

“Drill rigs use immediately after the construction of [the pads] were smaller than rigs used today,” BP permitting officials wrote in documents sent to the state on July 11.

The C Pad expansion calls for adding some 19,000 cubic yards of gravel to make the pad 1.88 acres larger. The gravel would be added in strips along the edges of the long pad.

The L Pad expansion calls for adding some 7,850 cubic yards of gravel to make the pad .62 acres larger. The gravel would be added in strips along the edges of the square pad.

The project does not require any tundra travel or new gravel sources, according to BP.

By starting this summer, BP believes it can complete the project by July 2013.

The project is a permanent fix to a problem BP has been handling seasonally until now by building ice extensions. The project is meant to accommodate the existing rig fleet and does not signal the arrival of new rigs, according to BP spokeswoman Dawn Patience.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments through Aug. 2.