• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

21 Days North of the Arctic Circle

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Inside a Well House: The Hydrolic "Shut-Down" panel and some instruments. This is a working well.
Pad3 002.jpg

Pad3 003.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
My "Sparkies" doing a "Well Re-Connect". Thank god for Arctic Hard Hat Liner's! At 40 below you need all the help you can get.
Pad3 004.jpg

Pad3 005.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Lats pic for today, One of the local Residents.
Pad3 006.jpg

Pad3 007.jpg
An Arctic Fox is actually smaller than a domesticated cat. They have a lot of fur. In the summer they are brown and black and look more like Arctic Rats.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Very interesting :clap:

The fox is cute. I didn't realize they were so small. Any other scavengers ?
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Our "Regular residents" include: Brown Bear(Grizzley), Polar Bears, Arctic Fox, Red Fox, Silver Fox, Ermine, Parker Squirrels, Musk Ox, Wolverine, Arctic Ravens, King Eider Ducks, Canadian geese, Swans, and Caribou. The biggest numbers are of Caribou, and several species of water fowl. All are protected on the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield.
_MG_6624_arctic_ground_squirrel_f_500.jpg
Parker Squirell

2-15-08raven1.jpg
Arctic Raven

Arctic-Fox-00001b.jpg
Arctic Fox

Ermine.jpg
Ermine
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Lyndon, this has been a marvelous thread. I'll almost be sorry when you head home for R&R. I bet you won't be though.

When you see the sheer scale of the operation those who have little knowledge of the oil business can get a handle on why exploring and producing the black stuff is so darned expensive.

You said that the largest producer at Milne Point puts out about 5000 bbl/day. I somehow always figured them to bigger producers than that, not that it's to be sneezed at. I'd love to have it in my backyard. :biggrin: About how much is the whole field producing at present and from how many wells. An approximation will do. It's just professional interest.

Again, thanks for the thread and photos. I love it.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Very interesting :clap:

The fox is cute. I didn't realize they were so small. Any other scavengers ?

This last guy definately rates a scavenger, and is know to take prey away from full grown Bears. It's name in the native language means:"Ravenous Appetite" and I have seen a giant one up around Pump 2, almost 5 foot tall when it stood on it's hind legs with beautiful fur, and paws as big as a Bear's.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
EastTexFrank: I slid right by your posting, sorry. Milne has about 200 wells, and generally produces around 35,000 BBl's a day. It's enough to "Pay the Rent". When the price is at or above 100$@BBl that's 3.5 Mil. per day. Sure, I'd settle for one day's production! Old Rocking Horse type(Walking-Beam) wells like you have in East Texas and elsewhere, are generally reffered to as "Stripper Wells" and a good one might produce 500 BBl a day. We have a few 100,000 BBl a day wells in other Prudhoe fields, but running them at that rate wears out the pipe fairly quickly and then it has to be replaced.
 

cabinboy

Member
Lyndon this is a really good thread !!!!! I am just amazed at all of the information and great pictures you are showing us here. I am looking forward to the next posting. The cold weather sure does make everything a major challange. Thanks
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm just completing my 19th week of some rather serious Chemo therapy. It's a 24 week duration and it tends to make me feel lously. Generating this thread has helped keep my mind off the pain. As an Inspector I get to see and work on almost every aspect of production and transportation. I enjoy sharing it with others. The years that I worked on the Trans Alaska Pipeline when ever a New guy showed up the crew would say:"Go get Lyndon to show you, he know's everything" and I informally acted as 'tour guide' for various visiting Engineer's and Dignitaries. Generally, since I held all the proper security and Safety certifications the Operators would let me tour them around even though the visitors did not have all the proper certifications. Normally in the petro chemical business one does not go anywhere or do anything without 1) a Permit, and 2) the proper PPE(Personel Protective Equipment) and 3) permission from the Operators. All prerequsites that I HAVE to have in order to preform my job.
 

pezman

New member
Lyndon, I'm sorry to about your chemo. I really hope everythings ok. I enjoy your post tremendously. My thoughts and prayers go with you.
 

cabinboy

Member
Lyndon , I am sorry about the health problems you are going through right now . I wish you well in the fight with these problems. GOOD LUCK My Friend !!!
 

mtmogs

New member
Hang in there Lyndon! I'm really enjoying this thread. The fact that it's therapy for you makes it that much better. With your positive attitude you'll be %100 before you know it.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Add my best wishes to those above. If it's helping you, it's helping me. I miss the oilfield ... just not enough to go back and do it. :yum::yum:
 

mtmogs

New member
When you see the sheer scale of the operation those who have little knowledge of the oil business can get a handle on why exploring and producing the black stuff is so darned expensive.

I'm with you there Frank. And all along the way, many good men and women are paid decent salaries and wages. Even after all that, gasoline is still cheaper than milk!
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Day 9: -22, it's warmed up noticably. Thanks for all the words of encouragement. Not feeling that bad today, and I only have a few more weeks to go. I have a lot of work to deal with today so I don't know how much extra-cricular photography I'll get to do.
This picture is of a 500 Ton, or 1,000,000,000 Lb truck and trailer. We have about 8 of these working up here on the "Slope". It's actually (2) Twelve Foot Wide trailers, each rated 250 tons, each with 32 tires(4 rows, 8 tires across).
Trailer.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
The 2 trailers are joined by a special adapter that allows the 2 trailers to be pulled by one truck tractor. The giant ramp on the bed is one of 2 for loading a 1000 ton crane. The ramps are close to 40 Feet long and generally have to be hauled on a "Roll-Back" like the one loading the tank in previous pictures. This picture also shows a reasonably good view of the "Rear's" of the SOW (oilfield slang name for this type of tractor)that pulls this trailer. The Axels are Planitary like on big 966 & 988 Cat Laoders.
Trailer-tr2.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
This is the SOW, and the other ramp. The SOW has a monster engine, 3 transmissions, an extra big 'Fith Wheel' plate with a 6 inch pin, is a full 12 Feet Wide, and is rated for the 1 Million pounds. It is not that uncommon to meet one of these 12 foot wides, pulling a 24 foot wide trailer with a Load on the trailer that hangs 15 foot off each side giving a total width of 54 Feet. Usually HE get's the Right-of-Way!
SOW.jpg
One Million Pounds on 74 tires. You Canadian Ice Road Truckers Check This Out!
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
When you move things that are this big as one piece, you need bigger 'Toys' to handel them. These Modules, manufactured in the lower 48, and designed to just squeek thru the Panama Canel, were Barged up to Prudhoe, then set on the land. Then, several months later, after everything freezes up good, they are trucked to their permanent locations. One of these Weighs in at a hefty 8000 Tons, or 16 Million Lbs.
GHX2.gif

Module.jpg
 

Ice Queen

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
I am so sorry to hear about your health problems, I hope all goes well for you, my thoughts are with you. Fabulous thread. What sort of tractor unit pulls those trailers?
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
My thoughts are with you, also, Lyndon .

The 12 foot wide truck says "Mack" on the hood. Do you know what kind of engine it has or how many HP ?

How do they move something that weighs 8000 tons ? Is there an even BIGGER truck ?? :smile:
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
There are actuall 3 methods: These Dolly's are each rated for 50 Ton and have a 50 ton hydraulic jack sticking out the top. all the jacks are hooked up to a leveling unit that keeps equal weight on each dolly. One of my employers had a set of 10 of these and we could move 500 ton sections of a Man camp with out dissassembling them.
house-moving-4a.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Sometimes we use one of these specialty trailers with a lot of extra axels. the individual units before and after the trailer are called "Jeep's".
heavi 1.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
But for the really big modules we use these, commonly reffered to as caterpilars units or they have some other slang names.
enlarged_move.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
To continue the Tour of Milne: This is S-Pad. The oil from the 38 Wells here is a thick as roofing tar.
S-pad 001.jpg
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
The last Pad, "T" or "Texaco" Pad. That manlift with the tracks was there so I got some close-ups.
S-pad 003.jpg

S-pad 002.jpg
 
Top