ConocoPhillips applies to over summer rig at Kokoda or Carbon in NPR-A

Petroleum News Alaska

ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to over summer a drilling rig on an insulated ice pad in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Corps said the insulated ice pad would be constructed in March, but depending on results of this winter's drilling at Puviaq, that construction could take place either this March or next March.

The company over summered a rig at Puviaq last year farther east in NPR-A last year.

The new proposed ice pad would be at either the Kokoda prospect in section 27, township 11 north, range 5 west, Umiat Meridian, or at the Carbon prospect in section 4 T10N, R1E, UM. Both are in NPR-A.

Puviaq is west of Teshekpuk Lake; Kokoda is south of the eastern end of the lake, about halfway back to the edge of NPR-A from Puviaq; Carbon is south of Harrison Bay, some 30-35 miles west from Kokoda.

The Corps said a crew of up to 20 people and selected ice pad construction equipment would be mobilized by rolligon and ATV to the proposed site. The pad would be 3.9 acres, some 312 feet by 544 feet by six inches to 24 inches thick and would be covered by standard eight foot by 24-foot by four to six-inch thick 25 psi expanded polystyrene foam insulation. The panels weight approximately 700 pounds each and would be sandwiched between eight foot by 24 foot sheets of 7/16 inch oriented strand board with reinforced polyethylene firm laid under the panels to prevent them from bonding to the ice pad.