Posted on 12/19/2011 2:17:14 PM PST by thackney
Two federal agencies have reached an agreement with ConocoPhillips Alaska that moves the company closer to building the first bridge and pipeline over the Colville River on Alaska's North Slope.
The company wants access across the Arctic river to reach leases within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Oil pumped from the leases would be the first production within the vast reserve.
The Army Corps of Engineers in February 2010 denied a permit for the bridge and said a buried pipe would be less environmentally damaging. ConocoPhillips appealed, and the Corps sought a review of the project by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Interior Department announced Monday that the two agencies could accept the bridge if conditions were met, including engineering changes and substantial mitigation proposed by ConocoPhillips in consultation with the agencies.
"This is a positive step in the process of granting the Section 404 permit for the CD5 project. We have not yet seen the permit nor its conditions, but we are encouraged by today's announcement," ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said in an email to The Associated Press.
The company also has agreed to allow other companies that develop leases within the petroleum reserve to use the bridge rather than having to seek approval for additional channel crossings in the area, the department announced.
(Excerpt) Read more at alaskajournal.com ...
In spite of the headline, this looks a lot like the info from the report more than a week ago:
Agencies agree on bridge; Corps of Engineers decision this year {Alaska, NPRA, New Oil production}
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2818595/posts
Posted on Saturday, December 10, 2011
Sorry everyone, I figured out this is an article written two weeks ago, but posted on the Journal’s web site today.
The last paragraph:
The president in May called for additional petroleum development in Alaska, including annual NPRA lease sales. The next lease sale is scheduled for Wednesday.
NOT BREAKING NEWS, even on the delayed broadcast for Alaska.
That sale was held December 7th.
” - - - The Army Corps of Engineers in February 2010 denied a permit for the bridge and said a buried pipe would be less environmentally damaging. “
This is the most ignorant thing that I have read since Princess Nancy Pelosi said that it was intolerable half of American wage earners earn less than half of the National Average wage.
The oil is hot when it comes from the well head. The hot oil heats the oil pipeline which will melt the permafrost. Put the oil pipeline ABOVE the ground!
BTW, the Caribou have quintupled since the North Slope pipeline was installed.
Survey and Exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska has gone on for many years. Many leases with proved flow test on wells in multiple eastern section of NPRA.
ConcocoPhillips along with their partner Anadarko have been trying for years to get a permit to produce. Back in 2005 I was on a preliminary engineering team for them to design the first production drillpad in the NPRA. The major permit excuse has been the bridge of the Nigliq Channel of the Colville River Delta. The bridge will not cross the main river but rather a smaller but significant channel.
This “first” production facility has not been built yet, but this bridge is the key to getting it done. I spoke with a ConocoPhillips Alaska engineer last week. They are hopeful but still consider it a not worth planning at the detail level until the permit is actually issued. But it sounds like the conditions of allowance for other future companies is acceptable (not free, but shared services are common on the North Slope).
I put some useful links and pictures on this previous thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2818595/posts
The lease sales and previous lease sales in the NPRA can be found with maps at:
http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/energy/oil_gas/npra/npr-a_lease_sales-maps.html
Depending how much you want to know, I’ve been posting about this for years on FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/npra/index
Don't worry, if the bridge is denied and the facility built anyways (doubtful on economics), the government would be glad to require refrigeration outside the buried line, as a couple sections of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline had to due in areas where it had to be buried due to Avalanches, but still in permafrost.
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/PipelineFacts/pipelineengineering.html
See Milepost sections 645 and 649.
I have long recognized you as a fountain of knowledge on the subject!
Thanks!
I see Colville on one of your maps.
Looks like not far from Alpine that already has a pipeline river crossing?
I assume conoco believes it promising or they would not be pursuing it.
Permafrost is overrated. ;)
Some of those first buildings on the North Slope learned the hard way about melting permafrost and sinking buildings.
ConocoPhillips’s Alpine Pipeline Company is the managing partner of Alpine Transportation Company (ATC), the owner of the Alpine Pipeline System. Ownership of the Alpine Pipeline System is as follows: ConocoPhillips 65%, Anadarko 18.33%, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation 15%, and Kuukpik Coorporation 1.67%. The Alpine pipeline is approximately 34 miles in length having an outside pipe diameter of 14 inches. The system originates at the Alpine Oil Field on the North Slope and connects into the Kuparuk pipeline 34 miles to the east. The system has one pump station located at the Alpine Field. In its tenth year of operation, ATC currently transports approximately 95,000 barrels per day of crude.
This pipeline dives under the main Colville River. But also remember this pipeline is after the Central Processing Facility. The oil/gas/water are already separated out so it is straight crude in that line, rather than the oil/gas/water mix that will have some separation in the line that goes from the drillpad to the central processing station.
Alpine is not connected to rest of the North Slope on the road system. It is because of the Colville River. Every winter they build an ice-bridge across it, hauling up to 100 ton loads.
I traveled it once, I think in 2005, when the temperature at Alpine dropped to -48°F and they shut down the planes. We were scheduled to head out that day. So we made a caravan to Kuparuk, a couple hour drive on the ice road and bridge. At those temperature, the floor of the heated bus is still so cold that normal shoes become painful as the heat is sucked through your soles and the insulated bus floor.
http://maps.google.com/?ll=70.342284,-150.937729&spn=0.023099,0.13175&t=h&z=14&vpsrc=6
If you are curious, you can go to this link and follow the pipeline as it heads south from Alpine, then turns east then dives under the Colville River.
Most excellent.
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