State approves CD2 pad expansion

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas has approved an application from ConocoPhillips Alaska to expand the CD2 pad in the Colville River unit.

The company applied in October to place gravel to expand the west side of the CD2 pad, surface infrastructure which would allow drilling of 32 wells to develop the Fiord West prospect.

Activities are scheduled to begin during the winter of 2018 and continue through the spring of 2020.

Some 73,000 cubic yards of gravel will be placed to enlarge the pad, and vertical support members, pipe racks, lights and conductors will be installed in the expansion area.

The division said it received comments on the proposal from the Northern Regional Office of the Division of Mining, Land & Water, requesting that ConocoPhillips abide by the 2008 North Slope mitigation measure definition for secondary containment on state lands. A stipulation was added as a result of the comment, requiring an as-built survey within a year of gravel placement and storage of all associated hydrocarbon and hazardous substances tanks within lined and bermed secondary containment capable of holding 110 percent the volume of the largest container.

The approval expires Dec. 14, 2020, if activities have not commenced.

- Petroleum News