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21 Days North of the Arctic Circle

What a fascinating post, please continue. I have been watching the second series of Ice Road Truckers on the television in the UK, I find it very interesting, but much as I love trucks, I wouldn't want to do it - I'd be too scared. Incidentally, oil derivatives are very expensive in the UK, I was surprised how much cheaper petrol (gas, I think you call it) was in America. Along with some of your lovely snow, can you send me some cheaper fuel?!
 
Good Mornig. Day 3. -33 F Ambient, -45 with the 'windchill' factored in. I started work at 5:30 as usual, attended a staff organizational meeting, then a safety meeting at 6:00. These pictures I took much later, at 9:30 and as you can see it's still rather dark out. The first picture is of the "Bull Rail" a place where we park and plug-in the vehicles. Things like the Box Trucks, and Welding Trucks have 2 Plug-in's, one for the auxilery equipment such as a Generator Welder , and one for the trucks engine. The pic's not too good, but you can see the cords haging down.
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This next one is of the Processing facility. In this module are some great big gas compressors that look like a gigantic VW, 4 Cylinder, only the "Jug's" are 2 feet in diameter, they are driven by 3000 HP electric motors that run at 4160 Volts and are "water-cooled".

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There is a significant difference between the Ice road complex in Canada and the one here in alaska. There's is far more dangerous! This is because 1) they run on Ice that is on deep lakes, and 2) they are not anywhere near as far north as we are.
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The Ice Road complex in Canada runs up to the Arctic circle, where as the alaska oilfields are 300 miles North of the Arctic circle. Here the ground and bottoms of lakes and Ocean floor are Perma-frost. Most of the places the lakes here freeze solid so that there is Ice, resting on perma-frost, or more ice. Not much chance of going thru here. In fact it has only happened twice in the 15 years I have worked up here.
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This also results in a much longer season and the ability to move MUCH heavier laods. Maximum loads on the canadian Ice roads are 200 to 300,000 Pounds. Up here we routinely move 1.5 to 3 Million pound loads, almost on a daily basis.
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We have about 35 of these mobile drill rigs that weigh in between 1.5 and 3 million pounds that are constantly on the move.
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As with our Land Ice Roads, our Sea Ice Roads sit on Perma-frost, and the Ocean is very shallow. When we built several new facilities, we trucked modules that weighed 8000 Tons, thats right, 16 Million pounds, across the frozen ocean, without a hitch.
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Also something that was depicted on the Ice Road Truckers show was having freeze-up's and cold weather problems with the vehicles. Even though it's as cold and often colder here, we have very limited problems of this nature. That's probably because we have been doing it for 35 years, and a lot more of it. If you add up all the people working in the Canadian Arctic, and all the people working on the Antarctic at Scott base, and McMurdo, it's about 500 to a thousnd people. During the height of construction in Prudhoe there were 35,000 workers, and even today thats a respectable 3000 to 5000 personel. Something about "Practice Makes Perfect".
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When we were building Bedalmi, I drove 22 miles each way, twice a day to and from the site over Sea Ice the entire way. In a month that's 1200 miles.
Likewise while building Alpine, another oil development site up here, we rode in a trailways/greyhound type tour busses, 26 miles over Sea Ice, 7 days a week. In all I have probably 2000 miles on Sea Ice and another 5000 miles on Land Ice roads, sometimes pulling a 46 foot box trailer with no brakes! Do you suppose tha qualifies me as a Ice Road Trucker? Since there is little danger I doubt we'll get our own show.
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Alpine. Oil development site, no road system serves this site. Everything either comes in by air or over an Ice Road.
 
Everything of any major size came to this site, Alpine over the Sea Ice Road.
There is a full airstrip there too. It's in the left hand corner, top.
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Lyndon, I can understand plugging in the truck and the welder/generator but what about the tires? A friend who worked up there said that the rubber in the tires got so hard because of the cold that flat spots were frozen in the tires where they rested on the ground overnight. He said that driving first thing in the morning was really rough until the tires warmed up enough for the flat spots to work their way out. Or was that just another oilfield story? :unsure:

Also, do have a picture of an abandoned drilling site? I'd be interested to see what they look like once they have been reclaimed and returned to their original condition. It might help set the anti-drilling people's mind at ease too.
 
EastTexFrank: We've found that a few specific makes of tires hold up in the extreem cold. One in particular is a japanese tire that has more oil and synthetics in the rubber.
The Above mentioned site, Alpine, and this site, Badami, are both artificial Islands, on the land. Each have an Airstrip, and during construction, had as many as 3 Ice roads, one on the land for personel and equipment, one on the land for building the pipeline, and one on the ocean for heavy stuff. Once the facility is completed they don't build an Ice road every year, only when they need to move a Rig. Rolligons, riding directly on the snow carry pipe and drilling supplies out in the winter. The personel and parishables like food, go by air.
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The little road leads about a mile away to the Airstrip.
 
From this mornings posts # 33, & #34: Here's the same pictures at noon, just 2-1/2 hours later:
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Ice Pad under construction:
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Tanker on lake pumping water for Ice Road Construction.

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Milne covrs 94 Square miles, and is the second most northern point in Alaska. Barrow, 35 miles to the West is the fartherst north point in Alaska. This is Doyan's Rig #14. Here it's working at "F" pad. F-pad sticks out in the ocean, and is surrounded on 3 sides by the Beaufort Sea(Arctic Ocean). This is the spot Polars Bears like!
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On Milne Points 94 sq. Mi. lease there are 14 Drill sites, the have from 10 to 80 wells.
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The Rig, with it's derrick folded down is 57 Feet High, and 51 Feet Wide.
 
EastTexFrank: They require the leese holders, BP, Arco, Phillips, Conoco, Mobile, Exxon, Marathon, Shell and the State of Alaska to deposit a sizeable "Contingency Fund" for every development site. This money sits in a bank gaining interest for how ever long they work the site. Then they remediate the site. Only after it's done does the respective lease holder get their money back, which at this point is often 3 to 5 time as much as the remediation costs. If one were to fail to clean up a site adaquately, the state would use the money to do it. >
I worked with: BLM/NFS/NPS/NWS/DEP/DEC/EPA/AK Dept of Labor/Federal Dep of Labor/Ak Dept of Transportation/Federal Dept of Transportation/FBI/CIA and I've forgotten the other 4 agencies (17 total) that make up the JPO or Joint Pipeline Office. This conglomeration of 17 agencies has the final "SAY" on such matters. Of the 40 construction camps along the Pipeline corridor, most have been so well remediated that you can not find them. They took away the camps, the gravel pad, the access road, reseeded with the correct mix of Tundra Seed, and left no old 50 gallon barrels or rebar or anything! I had to take pictures and some 60 year old guy that had actually been there, just to find the spot! They did one hell of a good job.
 
This is Galbraith Lake , where there was a construction camp and an air field.
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This is the Camp that WAS there: It's gone, but the airfield is still maintained.
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I Inspected at this site extensively.
 
This is Isabel Pass Construction Camp, where I had to take the Old guy and Pictures just to find where it had been. This was a 2300 Man Camp. There isn't the slightest sign that it ever existed. Not all sites have been this thuroughly remediated,... Yet.
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Lyndon said:
This is Galbraith Lake , where there was a construction camp and an air field.
Click to expand...

Lyndon, are these camps inside wildlife preserves or parks? Why do they have to be completely removed and the land restored?
 
Great photos Lyndon. Some of the people who jump up and down about destroying the wilderness should see them. If it's done properly and handled correctly, the effect on the environment can be absolutely ZERO. People need to understand that. Oil companies in general do a lousy job of PR.

Keep them coming bro'. I'm enjoying the heck out of this thread. I've been fully retired for about 5 years now but I still kinda miss it. It gets in your blood.
 
The 800 mile Trans Alaska Pipeline passes thru: State Forest, National Forest, National Park, BLM, and Native Owned lands. The preserving of the land was a term set back when it was constructed. No other Oil & gas operation is under as much scrutiny. As a consequence of this the "Players" put on the best 'show' up here. Most other Petrochemical operations worldwide are no where near as pristene and sanitary. This is according to the actual Oil workers that have worked worldwide, who have also worked here, French, German, Brittish, Scandinavian, as well as the Texan's and "Oakies".
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This is where "SERVICE CITY" a big Camp, air Strip and construction complex used to sit. We even hauled away the gravel from the runway a few years ago and it became the runway at Alpine.
 
Well, day three is almost over. Had a beautiful sunset at 3:20 PM. It's -35 and PERFECT for building Ice Roads!
 
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