State approves various Slope work projects

Petroleum News

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas has approved three North Slope infrastructure projects, including moving an existing camp, adding an airport gate and upgrading a transmission line.

A March 1 approval is of a request by Prudhoe Bay operator Hilcorp North Slope to relocate a camp from the Tarmac Pad at PBOC to the Annex Pad at BOC. Hilcorp told the division the camp was unoccupied and would be moved by cranes and transported by impassable wide load trucks.

At its new location the camp will tie in to existing electrical and mechanical infrastructure, the division said in its approval of a unit plan of operations amendment. New bull rails will be installed on the west side of Annex Pad.

The relocation is to provide housing in support of operations in the Western Operating Area, the division said.

The project was scheduled to begin March 1 and be completed by December.

Annex Pad is some 9 miles northwest of Deadhorse and Tarmac Pad is some 2 miles northeast of Deadhorse.

A ConocoPhillips Alaska request for a unit plan of operation amendment for a new airstrip entrance gate at the Colville River unit was approved by the division March 22. The division said the gate will be installed at the existing Air Traffic Advisory Center Tower adjacent to the existing hanger at the Alpine Apron, with work scheduled to begin March 23 and be completed by the end of the 2024 winter off-road season.

Four 8-inch diameter vertical support members are to be installed, two 7-foot steel beams, two 3-foot steel beams, the 60-foot gate and four 6-inch diameter bollards.

A March 1 unit plan of operation amendment decision is for a ConocoPhillips Alaska transmission line upgrade at Drill Site 3B at the Kuparuk River unit.

The division said the work will upgrade the existing electrical transmission line supplying power from Central Processing Facility 3 to DS 3B and includes two armored power cables buried 3 to 4 feet deep in a trench some 575 feet long on the existing DS 3B gravel pad, with 100 feet of the cables on the tundra from the edge of the pad to the existing power pole. Work was scheduled to begin March 1 and be completed by the end of the 2024 winter construction season.

--PETROLEUM NEWS