LATEST SEALIFT OF ALASKA NORTH SLOPE EQUIPMENT ABOUT TO EMBARK
The latest summer sealift of equipment destined for oil and gas operations on Alaska's North Slope is about to get under way.
Barges carrying modules designed to boost production in supergiant Prudhoe Bay oil field are being loaded this month in New Iberia, La., for their 8,000 mile trip to the North Slope.
The three 400 foot barges will depart the Louisiana coast June 4 and transit the Panama Canal en route to Prudhoe Bay. The sealift will arrive in early August and is timed to take advantage of the brief summer window when arctic ice pack moves offshore, allowing barge shipments through the Beaufort Sea.
W-2 PROJECT
The barges are carrying three 10 story, 5,000 ton modules, the heaviest modules ever constructed for Prudhoe Bay operations.
Similar facilities will be delivered by sealift in 1994 to complete delivery of equipment for Gas Handling Expansion No. 2 (GHX-2) project. The GHX-2 project will increase fieldwide gas handling capacity to 7.5 bcfd from 5.2 bcfd. This will enable field operators ARCO Alaska Inc. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. to boost production of oil and natural gas liquids by about 100,000 b/d.
Facilities delivered this summer will increase fieldwide gas handling capacity to 6.5 bcfd and provide about half the recovery benefits associated with GHX-2.
Liquids production at Prudhoe Bay is constrained by the ability of field operators to process and reinject associated natural gas.
Since 1988, production of hydrocarbon liquids at Prudhoe Bay has declined from 1.6 million b/d to 1.175 million b/d. Installation of additional gas handling capacity will temporarily stem decline in the near term and slow the rate of decline in the years ahead.
GHX-2 will cost $1.2 billion and increase ultimate Prudhoe Bay liquids recovery by about 330-450 million bbl. A similar project, GHX-1, was completed in 1990 (OGJ, July 30, 1990, p.34).
Twelve modules weighing 17,000 tons will be delivered to the field via the 1993 sealift.
Among them are a 5,000 ton gas expansion annex for Gathering Center No. 1, operated by BP Exploration in the western operating area of the field, and two 5,000 ton tandem compressor units for the Central Gas Facility operated by ARCO. The compressors are powered by a pair of 60,000 hp gas fired turbines.
Employment at the New Iberia fabrication site has averaged 1,100 craft and staff, with a peak of more than 1,800. Work will continue at the site on modules scheduled for the 1994 sealift.
Sealift barges will be unloaded at West Dock at Prudhoe Bay. The modules will then be moved more than 10 miles inland using a massive rolling lift rubber tire vehicle (RTV) that has 32 axles and 512 tires. The RTV was purpose built at a cost of $13 million.
For months, workers at Prudhoe Bay have been preparing for arrival of the 1993 sealift. Total North Slope employment peaked in March at 950 workers, with 800 workers now employed on GHX-2 related projects.
Workers are installing pile foundations for the new modules and revamping existing facilities to accommodate them. GHX-2 will also require construction of 29 miles of pipeline to move increased volumes of gas in the field.
Ralph M. Parsons Co., Pasadena, Calif., designed the gas handling facilities, Fluor Daniel Inc., Irvine, Calif., is fabricating the modules, and VECO International, Anchorage, will install them on the North Slope.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.