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Corps public notices Thomson application Comments due Jan. 3 on ExxonMobil proposal for facilities, pipeline project; construction projected to begin winter of 2012-13 Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has public noticed an application from Exxon Mobil Corp. and PTE Pipeline LLC for Point Thomson project development. The proposed work in federal waters at Point Thomson, some 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay and 60 miles west of Kaktovik, would initiate commercial hydrocarbon production and delineate and evaluate hydrocarbon resources in the Point Thomson area.
Three gravel pads, an export pipeline, an airstrip, mine site and support pad are proposed, the corps said in a Nov. 18 public notice; comments are due on the proposal Jan. 3, which is also the closing date for comments on the draft environmental impact statement which was released for public comment in mid-November.
The corps said it will prepare a final EIS after the close of the draft EIS public comment period in response to comments received and will make a permit decision after the final EIS has been published.
A record of decision will describe its decision on the permit application.
The draft EIS analyzes environmental impacts of the project proposed by the applicant, and compares that proposal and three other alternatives to the human and environmental impacts associated with the no action alternative.
Wetland fill The corps said that the total acreage of wetland fill for the project as proposed by ExxonMobil would be approximately 267.5 acres, and would include gravel for drilling-production pads and connecting roads, airstrip, gravel mine and overburden replacement, vertical support members for in-field pipeline and export pipeline and pilings for a proposed barge offloading facility and service pier. The fill material would come from a new mine site approximately 2.5 miles inland.
The project would include three gravel pads, five development wells, infield gathering lines, 12 miles of infield gravel roads, a 5,600-foot airstrip, a gravel mine, processing facilities and support infrastructure and a sales oil pipeline to Badami.
Two of the wells were drilled in 2009-10 from the existing central pad and did not require new fill.
Long-reach directional drilling will be used to develop the primarily offshore Thomson Sand reservoir from onshore pads near the coast.
The central pad (56 acres including 13.2 acres of existing fill) involves expansion of the existing Point Thomson Unit No. 3 pad. Processing facilities at the central pad would separate hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas, re-inject the gas and stabilize liquid hydrocarbons for transport in the Point Thomson export pipeline.
The west pad, approximately 19 acres, would be a new pad 4 miles west of the central pad; the east pad would connect a new 11-acre pad on the coast to the existing 4.6-acre North Staines River No. 1 exploration pad. The existing pad at the east pad location would be used for temporarily staging equipment and camps during drilling.
Beginning in 2012-13 The corps said construction activities are proposed to begin in the winter of 2012-13 and be completed by the winter of 2015-16, with civil construction — including gravel placement and gravel mining — to be conducted mainly in the winters of 2012-13 and 2013-14.
Production infrastructure construction would begin in early 2013 and be completed in the winter of 2015-16, with large processing modules arriving by sealift in the summer of 2015.
Drilling would begin in early 2015 and be completed in early 2017.
Facility module installation, commissioning and startup are planned for 2015 and early 2016.
The common carrier export pipeline would be subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulation. The 22-mile 12-inch diameter line would take processed liquid hydrocarbons from the central processing facility to a connection with the sale oil pipeline at the Badami facility.
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