Anadarko’s Arctic test platform worked well, says Mark Hanley

Kay Cashman

Anadarko Petroleum’s Arctic platform prototype performed “very well,” company spokesman Mark Hanley told Petroleum News Aug. 11. “We didn’t have any real problems … it didn’t subside, and we left it out over two seasons.”

The unit, tested the last two winters on a gas hydrate project on Alaska’s North Slope, is up for sale, Hanley said. A larger model will have to be built for conventional North Slope oil and gas wells, incorporating the “lessons learned” from the prototype.

The unit, built for use in remote areas of Alaska’s North Slope where water supplies and steep terrain make ice roads and pads impractical and cost-prohibitive, incorporates the concept of an offshore drilling platform.

In an earlier interview Keith Millheim, Anadarko’s Houston-based manager of operations technology, said that if you look at old offshore jack-up rigs used in the Gulf of Mexico you could get a feel for the dimensions of the Arctic platform, which could be as large as 32 modules, each 50 feet by 12.5 feet. (The prototype has 21 modules, all of which, Hanley said, would have to be modified using “lessons learned” at the gas hydrate project if they were to be part of a larger module for conventional North Slope wells.)

Currently the camp, which rested on the platform so that only the prototype’s legs were touching the ground, is being leased by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in Alaska. The rest of the prototype is up for sale.

“There are stellar uses for the existing platform in a smaller scale setting,” he said. Designed for a smaller drilling rig, “it can be used in other sensitive environments … such as swamps.”

So when is Anadarko going to build a full-size platform and begin drilling exploration wells in remote areas of the North Slope, such as the Brooks Range Foothills?

The short answer: The company is still in the process of evaluating what it learned from the prototype but, more importantly, it needs several drillable prospects to proceed.

“Unlike ice roads and pads, the Arctic platform could be used for multiple wells over a period of many years. So you can spread the cost over more than just one or two wells,” Hanley said.

“We’re in the process of putting together a multi-year drilling program,” but a major challenge for Anadarko in Alaska, he said, is the chicken or egg battle regarding the proposed natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to southern markets. The company needs to know it will have access to the gas pipeline before it can commit to drilling a lot of wells in the gas-prone Brooks Range Foothills.

“The next generation platform will be improved and take advantage of the lessons we learned to reduce costs and improve efficiencies,” Hanley said. “We’re still evaluating the economics and how it would compete with other exploration options … but a big part of it is getting the prospects lined up.” Their location and environment, he said, plays into the final design of a full-size platform.