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21 Days North of the Arctic Circle

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Grab your 'Arctic Gear', Hop on to BP/Arco/Phillips/Conoco's 737.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
1 hour and 50 minutes later we'll be landing at Kuparup, this is 300 Miles North of the Arctic circle. todays Ambient is -29!
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
When you get off the Shared Services 737 at Kuparuk there is no Air Terminal, you walk down stairs to 4 waiting Busses and one small (Twin Otter) aircraft, get on the approiate bus or plane to take you to your camp. We'll get on the Milne Point Bus. It's about a 30 minute ride to Milne.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
We go by S-pad on the way to Milne, and "Texaco" pad, which has 3 temporary Mobile Rig Camps on it. We will be replacing one of our underground pipelines with a new above ground pipeline. The camps will house the pieline construction crew. Our permanent camp at Milne is full to capacity, 300 People.
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S-Pad.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
This is A-Pad, which has yet another Camp for the drill rig on it. I went to do an inspection here this morning.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
When it gets light out, around 11.00 AM, I'll go get some pictures of them building the Ice Road that wil be servicing the construction of the new pipeline.
A-pad 014.jpg

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"C-Pad" where I'm headed to witness testing of a High Voltage Cable.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
These are the 3 Teemporary "Man-Camps" that will house the Pipeline Construction Crew.
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There Set up in a Horseshoe arraingement. One is already occupied, they are still working on getting the other 2 livable. Did you see it in the middle photo?
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Now I've seen everything! This is a first even for me! A Tracked manlift!
A-pad 014.jpg
They are NOT Matt tracks either!
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Do they truck those living units into place and just hook them together?

I'd like to know more about those if you get a chance.

That man lift looks like a Genie. I've used those . . . but with wheels!
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
In answer to your question Bob S, the Man Camps are completely Mobile. They have generators to keep them warm while traveling so that they don't have to drain the pipes, then there is a seperate unit that is the Power House and Water Treatment Plant that hooks up to it. More Pictures to come!
During the remaining 19 days of my three week hitch you should ge the "Play by play" on the new pipeline. Just finished lunch, and it's finally light out, but I have to hurry, for in another hour and a half it will be dark.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Thanks for the pictures :clap:

Yes, I saw it :smile:

Do you get the same room every hitch ? Are the rooms OK or really tiny and all white ??
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
This is Doyan's Mobil Rig Camp for Rig#14. It's Delux! I stayed in it some 10 years ago when it was new, for about 10 days.
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It splits in half down that black line about where the row of pick-up's ends. they can move it in a day and have it ready to live in the same day.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
It even has 2 Microwave dishes, one for communications, and one for sattellite TV.
A-pad2 002.jpg
This One-Story unit off to the right of the camp, but roughly center of this picture is the Power House and Water Treatment Plant, and weighs in around 500,000 Lbs+. You can see that they are only running one generator from the plume off the exhaust. The other unit is the standby in case they need to work on the other generator.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Signs give the Height as 57 feet, and the width around 40 feet.
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Notice the extensive Bear Protection for the Dumpster on the back end of the camp.

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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
A rather unique "Rolligon" tanker, parked in front of the Camp. It will be used in the up coming Ice Road construction. The tires are 8 foot wide.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
An Instrument and electrical module, with some sizable drifts. The New Pipeline starts at this pad and jumps to 3 more pads, before tying into an existing above ground pipe.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
They are just starting the Ice Road Construction. First it gets stomped on and graded by dozers and loaders. A survey crew has already put up a system of markers along the entire 5 mile route. Very shortly, like this evening or tomorrow huge water trucks will start "laying down Ice".
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Here they are already building a "Lay-Down-Yard" to store materials and equipment. It will be several acres of ice.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
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Many years ago I used to drive one of these Crane Trucks pulling a 46 foot trailer that was my electricians shop.
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Lyndon

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GOLD Site Supporter
Here some of my electricians are trenching in a new power cable. this requires a Hot Water truck and a 'VAC' truck, normally reffered to as a: "SUPER SUCKER". one guy blows hot water into the ground while the other vacumes up the debris. It's nasty work, real noisy and wet!
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Here's My camp, with 'Flags Flying', U.S., Alaska, BP.
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In answer to Pixies Question: Yes, I generally get the same room. It's a double occupancy room that has built in cabinets and beds, it's own phone and Sattellite cabe TV. The Camp is rigged for WIFI, so lots of the workers have wireless laptops. My computer in my office is Hi Speed fiber-Optic.
I wish I could post pictures of the Process areas, but taking pictures there is a big hassel. Amazingly the areas of the plant where we process the oil are as clean as a hospital! All Painted up and well lit even the air is good. But there are these multi-million dollar fire protection/Detection/Supperssion systems that don't respond well to flash cameras. This can shut down a facility and dump millions of dollars worth of firefighting foam. The Detection systems incorperate Heat Detectors, Smoke Detectors, 5 kinds of Gas Detectors, and Infra Red and Ultra Violet camera type detectors. It's the "UV's" (Ultro-Violet) that don't like cameras. Understandably the Operators are 'Nervious' about picture taking. Some operators will let you take pictures, but they have to first Defeat or Bypass the UV Detectors. Considering that we process some 30,000 barrells of oil and some additional millions of cubic feet of Gas a day, we don't like running with the fire system bypassed. I was a Fire & Gas Tech for some years here on the "Slope".
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Are there common rooms in the different kinds of camps ?

That trenching sounds messy. The workers must get a coating of ice on them !!

Nice picture with the flags !
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
All Camps have a Chow hall, almost every camp has a Pool Hall, and seperate TV Rooms for the Smokers and Non Smokers. The larger camps have Rooms with fitness equipment, we have one of these with exercise machines, and another with Weight machines. We also have a Gym, where there are nightly basketball games, and sometimes volley ball. At the bigger camps they have more of the same. One camp has 2 Gyms, an Olympic size Pool, a full sized Theatre, and a large glass Atrium full of plants that is several stories tall.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Longest day: 63 days,23 Hrs, 40 mins.
Shortest day: 1 Hr. 3 Mins.
Maximum record temp: 83 F
Mimimum temp Minus 62 F
Highest Wind speed 109 MPH
Official lowest temp With Wind chill -135.
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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Because we work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, you don't find people up much past about 9 PM. The Pool hall and Gym are vacant! TV Rooms silent! Only the 2nd shift guy's and the cooks. they serve a meal for the second shift guys at midnight.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
What do they do to keep the air in the camps fresh ?

Even in the winter I open a window a little at night but that's probably not a good idea when it's that cold....
 

mtmogs

New member
Fantastic stuff Lyndon. Thanks much for posting. Despite being in the oil biz myself, I am always amazed that, considering the costs of equipment, personnel, refining and marketing, a gallon of gas at the pump costs less than a gallon of milk!
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Great pictures Lyndon. I never worked the North Slope although I had lots of friends who did for BP in the early days. Those pictures started me thinking about some of the stories that they used to tell. It must have been "fun" back then when the derricks were made of wood and it was the men who were made of steel. Keep 'em coming.
 
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