Nabors Trouble Creek ice road permit OK'd

Kay Cashman

Petrolem News

On March 3, Doss Daley, an engineer at Nabors Alaska Drilling Inc., received approval from the Department of Natural Resources- Division of Oil and Gas for the Trouble Creek Bridge Ice Road Bypass Land Use Permit that Nabors applied for on Feb. 6.

The permit, LAS 35846, allows the company to conduct off road travel, ice construction and associated temporary activities on state of Alaska lands and waters between the Colville and Canning rivers on the North Slope. (The project is approximately 12 miles southeast of the Kuparuk Airstrip.)

Nabors will build 1,500-foot ice road over Trouble Creek to bypass the bridge because the bridge over Trouble Creek is currently not strong enough to support the rig.

The ice road will start from the Spine Road near DS-2M Pad and end at the Spine Road junction to Mustang Pad and Pikka Unit.

Nabors Rig 245 will be moved from 12-Acre Pad near Oliktok Point to the Cama- i Pad west of the Kuparuk River Unit.

Work is likely to begin shortly.

The division provided a review and comment opportunity for the activities considered for authorization under this approval. The following government entities were notified on Feb. 9 for comment on the Land Use Permit, or LUP: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), DNR: Division of Mining Land, and Water (DMLW), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the North Slope Borough (NSB).

The comment deadline for agencies was Feb.23. No comments were received.

Public notice of the LUP application and opportunity to comment was provided on the state of Alaska- s online public notice website and the division- s website on Feb. 11.

Additionally, faxes of the public notice were sent to Utqiaġvik, Nuiqsut and Deadhorse Post Offices.

The deadline for public comment was Feb. 25. No comments were received.

Nabors has previously provided the division with a performance guaranty in the amount of $100,000. Due to the scope of the project, an additional performance guaranty was not required, the division said.

To protect the state from liability associated with remediation activities under the LUP Nabors provided a commercial general liability insurance policy, with the state of Alaska as a named insured party.

The ending date of the permit is May 31, 2026.