Derrick tips at NPR-A, no injuries

Kay Cashman

The derrick for Rig 19E tipped over on March 26 while Nabors Alaska Drilling Inc. was getting ready to spud the Rendezvous well for Phillips Alaska Inc. in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

“There were no injuries, ” Nabors Alaska President Jim Denney told PNA March 28. The damage “is mostly to the derrick.”

In an April 18 interview Denney said that Nabors is conducting “a study on the failure to figure out what happened. “We’re looking at this with the idea to improve the rig … make it operationally more efficient. We’ve called in Dreco from Edmonton to help us do that.”

Rig 19 E had just finished drilling the Palm well west of the Kuparuk River unit and was within a day of spudding the Rendezvous well when the mishap occurred.

Phillips Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience told PNA March 28 that the problem with the rig is going to have some impact on the company’s NPR-A drilling plans this winter.

Phillips had two rigs scheduled for NPR-A work this winter. Patience said the other rig began drilling in mid-March.

Rig 19E was scheduled to move to the Kuparuk River Field in May. Denney said that Rig 245E would “fill in for 19E at Kuparuk.”