A major sealift carrying modular units designed to boost production in Alaska's giant Prudhoe Bay oil field has sailed from a construction site at New Iberia, La.
It is bound for service in ARCO Alaska Inc. operations on the North Slope.
ARCO said the shipment appears to end a 20 year period of constant oil field development and installation of production facilities that has required 18 sealifts since 1975. To date, 777 production modules costing more than $20 billion and weighing more than 340,000 tons have been barged to North Slope oil fields.
"We don't have another major project under discussion," said H.L. (Skip) Bilhartz, president of ARCO Alaska.
CURRENT SEALIFT
The present sealift consists of four 400 ft barges carrying 14 production modules weighing 23,000 tons. The modules are designed to hike North Slope oil flow by expanding field wide gas handling capacity in Prudhoe Bay field and allowing waterflooding in nearby Point McIntyre oil field.
The 8,000 mile trip is expected to take about 3 months via the Panama Canal.
The sealift will arrive early in August. It is timed to mesh with the brief summer window when the arctic ice pack moves offshore, allowing passage through the Beaufort Sea.
Arrival of the sealift will allow completion of ARCO's Gas Handling Expansion No. 2 (GHX 2) project in Prudhoe Bay field. GHX 2 will increase field wide gas handling capacity to 7.5 bcfd and boost production of oil and gas liquids an estimated 100,000 b/d. Part of that increase was realized with completion of Phase 1 of the project late in 1993.
Among the 14 modules included in the current sealift are a 5,000 ton gas annex for Flow Station No. 1 at Prudhoe Bay and a 5,000 ton low temperature separator and two 5,000 ton tandem compressor units for the Prudhoe Bay Central Gas Facility.
Included in the sealift is a produced water treatment module for the Lisbume Production Center. Installation of the module will allow use of waterflooding to maintain production rate and recover more oil from Point Mdntyre field, which produces through Lisburne facilities.
Point McIntyre, which went on stream in October 1993, is producing 90,000 b/d of oil.
Prudhoe Bay liquids production is constrained by the ability of field operators to process and reinject associated gas.
The $1.1 billion GHX 2 project will increase ultimate Prudhoe Bay liquids recovery by an estimated 330,450 million bbl. A similar project, GHX I, was completed in 1990.
Ralph M. Parsons Co., Pasadena, Calif., designed the gas handling facilities, and Raytheon Constructors, Denver, designed the Point Mclntyre water treatment module. Fluor Daniel Inc., Irvine, Calif., fabricated the modules. VECO International, Anchorage, Alas., will install them.
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