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Hilcorp permitting Milne G&I facility DEC to issue solid waste treatment permit for grind and inject at MPU B pad; facility was originally built for Northstar unit by BP KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said July 10 that it plans to issue a solid waste treatment facility permit to Hilcorp Alaska for treatment of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act exempt exploration and production drilling waste and RCRA non-hazardous waste, prior to injection of that waste into a Class I UIC well.
The facility is at the Milne Point Unit, B pad, some 25 miles northwest of Prudhoe Bay.
BP Exploration (Alaska), 50 percent working interest owner at Milne Point and the previous operator, was permitting the grind and inject facility prior to the sale of 50 percent working interest in the field to Hilcorp.
Increased drilling Hilcorp told DEC that the solid waste permit for the Milne Point grind and inject facility was to support increased drilling within the Milne Point unit. The company said it was proposing to reactivate the Northstar grind and inject drilling waste processing facility previously operated by BP.
Hilcorp said the grind and inject facility was constructed by BP between 1998 and 2000 and used at Northstar. The facility was demobilized and transported off Northstar Island in 2010.
At Milne Point the grind and inject facility will process some 40,000 cubic yards of exploration and production exempt and RCRA non-exempt, non-hazardous waste per year, the company said. Waste will be transported to the grind and inject facility using vacuum trucks, dump trucks or a vehicle with containers of waste, and the waste will be offloaded within an enclosed truck bay into a steel tank. Waste will then be pumped from the steel tank into the grind and inject facility, where it will be mechanically ground and injected.
Hilcorp said it “proposes to minimize the amount of drilling waste requiring disposal by segregating and treating portions of the material for beneficial reuse.”
The company said additional permits for the project include an Environmental Protection Agency underground injection control class I injection well permit, an Alaska Department of Natural Resources plan of operations and a North Slope Borough administrative approval.
Beneficial reuse In its application for a solid waste permit Hilcorp said the majority of the waste handled at the grind and inject facility would be processed onsite and disposed by underground injection, but to minimize the amount of drilling waste requiring injection, “select material will be segregated out and evaluated for potential beneficial reuse,” including road and pad construction, berm construction, backfill for excavations, constructions of concrete barriers and other construction projects.
That process includes separation of gravel and coarse cuttings from the main waste stream and treating them with pressure washing. After washing, material intended for reuse will be stored until analytical results are received and evaluated. Hilcorp said it would “sample the post-treatment cuttings on a per well basis,” and cuttings which meet performance standards will be reused.
Hilcorp’s DNR plan of operations amendment for the grind and inject facility notes that new piping required for the project will be on-pad and supported on existing vertical support members and new pad supports between wellhead and pipe racks.
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