Comments sought on Oooguruk project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking comments on a proposal from Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc. to expand the infrastructure at its Oooguruk unit.

The federal agency is taking comments on the project through Dec. 6, 2013.

The project includes four components at the artificial gravel island Pioneer constructed in the shallow state waters of the Beaufort Sea and at its associated onshore facilities.

The project calls for expanding the existing Oooguruk Tie-in Pad, building an onshore Seawater Tie-in Pad, building a seawater flowline that would connect the two tie-in pads and expanding the existing Oooguruk island. The Oooguruk Tie-in Pad expansion would increase the capacity of infrastructure such as power generation and separation volumes to accommodate the proposed Nuna development at Oooguruk. The proposed seawater flowline would also increase capacity as well as improve the reliability of seawater deliveries. The proposed Oooguruk Island expansion would allow for additional wells and add facilities to the northwest corner of the island to improve helicopter deliveries.

The Oooguruk Tie-in Pad expansion would discharge 14,500 cubic yards of gravel onto 1.5 acres of wetlands. The Seawater Tie-in Pad would discharge 1,200 cubic yards of gravel onto 0.18 acres of wetlands. The Oooguruk Island expansion would discharge 173,000 cubic yards of gravel into 4.22 acres of the Beaufort Sea, according to the Corps.

Pioneer Natural Resources recently sold its Alaska holdings to Caelus Energy LLC, which has said it intends to pursue the Nuna project “pretty much immediately.”

—Eric Lidji