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BP awards Northstar grind and inject module contract to H.C. Price
Petroleum News Alaska
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. said Dec. 22 that it has awarded a contract to H.C. Price Co. for fabrication of a drilling waste disposal facility for the Northstar oil field. The facility will consist of 12 modules which will be built in Fairbanks and trucked to the North Slope in August.
The facility was designed by Quadco Inc. and Coffman Engineers Inc., both of Anchorage. BP said that Quadco is handling procurement for the project and is obtaining major project components from Alaska suppliers.
Work to begin in February Work on the modules will begin in mid-February. SteelFab of Anchorage will provide structural steel for the modules. Those components will be fabricated in Anchorage and shipped to Fairbanks for assembly. BP said an estimated 59 people will be employed on the Fairbanks portion of the project, most of them union ironworkers, pipefitters, electricians, millwrights and teamsters.
After assembly, the modules will be fitted together and the entire facility tested in Fairbanks prior to being trucked to the North Slope. The facility is designed to allow pulverization of solid drilling wastes and the injection of all drilling wastes into confined formations deep in the earth.
The drilling waste disposal facility, or “grind and inject plant,” will be installed on the Northstar production island during the fall of 2000 so that development drilling can begin in November.
Other work also being done in Fairbanks Two other Fairbanks companies are playing a major role in the Northstar project. Flowline Alaska has fabricated pipe spools, insulated 23.9 miles of pipe and applied protective coatings to another 12.6 miles of pipe for use in the construction of the Northstar oil sales pipeline and for construction of a gas line to deliver natural gas to the field.
The Welding Shop fabricated 1,861 vertical support members (including top bars, slides and guides) for the onshore portion of both pipelines. The coated and insulated pipe and the vertical support members are scheduled to be trucked to the North Slope in January, in time for this year’s winter construction season.
Initial Northstar production of 65,000 barrels per day is expected in the fourth quarter of 2001. BP Exploration (Alaska) has a 98.08 percent working interest in the field. Murphy Exploration and Production Co. holds a 1.92 percent working interest.
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