BP plans updated waste disposal facility
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
BP Exploration (Alaska) has applied to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas for construction of a new gravel pad and installation of an updated Class I waste disposal facility between Drill Site 4 and the Fire Training Area in the Prudhoe Bay Unit. Permits will also be required from other state, federal and local agencies.
BP said in its application that the 2.58-acre gravel pad would accommodate an updated Class I waste disposal facility that would replace two existing facilities, Grind and Inject and Pad 3, which “are no longer providing adequate disposal operations.”
The company said the updated facility will allow for a single modern facility, appropriately sized, “to safely process and inject Class I waste vehicles.”
At the new facility vehicles offloading waste will access the facility via a one-way drive, transferring waste to “an enclosed system entirely within a sealed containment.”
Pad 3, south of Drill Site 6, and G&I on Drill Site 4, handle processing for wastes eligible for injection into existing Class I and Class II injection wells.
In addition to Prudhoe Bay, the new facility will handle wastes generated outside of BP-operated areas. Third-party wastes must meet all regulatory and operational criteria; those wastes are handled under terms of written agreements with the Greater Prudhoe Bay owners, and the same procedures will be followed for third-party wastes delivered to the new facilities, BP said.
The current injection facilities will cease operations after the new facility is operational.
Facilities Construction will include the gravel pad and widening of existing roads, a total of 2.58 acres using some 20,000 cubic yards of gravel.
Some 100 vertical support members will be installed on the gravel pad to support the processing module, the offloading tent, the transformer platform and associated infrastructure.
Seawater and waste slurry pipelines will be modified to isolate the existing G&I facility on Drill Site 4.
BP said project activities are scheduled to begin on July 10 with gravel placement beginning Aug. 1 and project completion expected by December 2020.
- KRISTEN NELSON
|