Kenai Kachemak Pipeline nears completion

Petroleum News Anchorage staff

Directional drills for crossings and right-of-way cleanup are under way for the Kenai Kachemak Pipeline.

“The project is 99.9 percent complete. We’re doing directional drills right now,” John Lau told Petroleum News June 10. Lau is project manager for Norstar Pipeline, the Enstar Natural Gas subsidiary formed to build and operate Kenai Kachemak, which is owned 60 percent by Marathon Oil and 40 percent by GUT LLC, a subsidiary of Unocal. The pipeline will carry natural gas from Ninilchik to Kenai.

Norstar managed the permitting, engineering and construction of Kenai Kachemak, Lau said.

He said installation of the 33-mile 12-inch pipeline is about 98 percent complete as are two of the nine directionally drilled crossings. “The nine directional drills will range in length from 700 feet to 2,000 feet,” Lau said. First a pilot hole is drilled under the streambed and the hole is reamed out to a diameter sufficient to easily pass the pipeline. Then the pipe is pulled through the reamed hole, he said.

Michael Baker did engineering for the pipeline, Houston Construction was the general contractor for pipeline installation and directional drilling was subcontracted to ARB, Lau said. Construction of the terminus management station is under way with Alaska Anvil providing engineering support and general construction by VECO.

Pipeline construction began in January and construction of the terminus building began in May and both are expected to be completed in August, Lau said.

The most significant challenges came during the permitting stage, with numerous state, federal and local agencies involved each with “a number of issues that had to be addressed.” Construction challenges “were attributable to above normal temperatures this past winter, causing additional complications when crossing the wetlands,” Law said.

The Kenai Kachemak Pipeline is the longest section of gas pipeline to be installed in the Cook Inlet area since Enstar’s Beluga line in 1985, he said. “Pipeline technology improvements since that period in the way of steel fabrication, pipeline coatings and construction methods such as horizontal directional drilling have improved the quality of the end product at comparably less cost,” Lau said.