Kuparuk Oil Field

I wrote this last week before I was on R&R...

It’s Friday February 25, 2011. I’ve officially been working remotely for 4 weeks and 5 days now. First off, I get to go home and see Sarah for 4 days starting next Thursday. I’m quite excited to go home for a break. Overall the time has gone by fast but the days can be very long and busy.

A little about the oil field: In the 60’s oil companies began exploration of the area. The local natives had reported locations of black liquid seeping out of the ground. After a few exploration drills they found the oil. Prudhoe Bay is North America’s largest oil field. Kuparuk, about 40 miles to the west is North America’s second largest oil field. From what I hear there is plenty more oil to be had. This is what the oil field looks like… flat and covered in snow:

Day light changes very fast. From the first part of December to the middle of January the sun doesn’t come above the horizon here. When I first arrived (January 24) the sun was just barely coming over the horizon and we had about 3 hours of daylight. Since then the area has been gaining about 8-10 minutes of sunlight PER DAY and now it is pushing 10 hours a day. By the time the project wraps up in May the sun will be up almost 24 hours. My first few weeks the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular because the entire day was one big sunrise and sunset. Here are some photos:

Camp life here is very different. We live in a mobile camp that ConocoPhillips moves around depending upon the construction season. It’s essentially a self contained village compromising of 20 or so trailers all connected together. Water (for drinking, toilets, and showers) and fuel (for heat and electricity) are brought in everyday to storage tanks. Sewer waste is pumped out of storage tanks every day. What do they do with the sewer you ask? Logically treating would be good. But the EPA’s regulations for building a sewer treatment plant up here are so stringent the cost would be astronomical. So… the sewer water is ejected back into the earth through old well heads. They put it in the old strata layers where the oil has already been removed. Yup. Don’t ask me how the EPA is okay with that but not drilling for more oil… damn government.

More about camp life… We eat in a chow hall that can sit about 40 people. All our meals are provided free. The food is usually pretty good and can range from hamburgers to stir fry to prime rib with everything in between. The sleeping rooms are about the size of a dorm room and we all have roommates. Housekeepers live in the camp and wash our sheets and give us clean towels. The Conoco employees live in a permanent camp about 2 miles away named Kuparuk Operations Center. That place is really nice… library, movie theatre, workout rooms, basketball court, etc. Here are some photos our camp:

The weather varies a lot. I’ve seen 30 degrees above and -65. Right now we are in what is called a ‘Phase 3’ blizzard. No travel allowed. All I see is white outside my office. It doesn’t snow a lot (maybe 30” a year) but if the wind picks up (like now it’s 50mph to 70 mph) what snow is around gets blown around. Many of the trucks parked outside our office are buried right now. There is a video but until you step outside in a 60mph blizzard you have no idea what it’s like. I have to lean into the wind to walk about 30ft from our office to our camp.

My work schedule is a bit grueling. I go to a foreman’s meeting at 6AM and another one at 6PM and work in between. 7 days a week. But the pay is good (I’m on a day rate so I get paid for everyday I work). I don’t want to do this forever but Sarah and I are thinking a season or two up here will give us a good nest egg. One bonus is that there are LDS church services up here. There is a group (ranges from about 4-10) that meet every Sunday at 7:30PM. We share a quick lesson and then administer the sacrament. It lasts about an hour. As far as the projects go we are replacing some pipeline that was installed in the late 70’s when the trans Alaskan pipeline was first built. The size of equipment up here is crazy… everything is big. The tundra is monitored religiously by the EPA, we are up here in the winter because we can build ice roads along the pipeline to perform our work. Come the end of April the ice melts away there is now sign we were even there (hopefully). Here are some photos of our project work: