Life in the Oilfields... of Alaska

Last Friday, I got to fly into Deadhorse, AK for my first work trip to the North Slope!  I was very excited to take it all in and learn and see and do whatever I could!  I'll be here until the 18th, so hopefully I'm still excited after that! 

Fortunately it's not too cold yet, its been between 35deg and 45 degs, which is just fine as long as the wind isn't blowing!

You actually fly into the "town" of Deadhorse and have to drive on to the official oilfield property which is "Prudhoe Bay"... but Deadhorse is known as the end of the Dalton Highway.

Well, the pictures of everything aren't really all that exciting, because its just flat and tundra.  But, here are some views you get while driving around.

(This is pump station 1, the start of the Trans Alaska Pipeline)

Another fun benefit of being up here is I get to say I've seen the Arctic Ocean... here it is... exciting huh?

So, since this is such an isolated and desolate place, everything needs to be brought in and specially engineered / design / built.  They have built a few "camps" around Prudhoe Bay where the dining halls and living quarters etc. all are. 

This is the BOC (Base Operating Camp), I guess this is the "nicest" camp, so of course we aren't staying here for our work... we're staying at a more temporary camp within Prudhoe Bay called Tarmac because it is built along the old runway.

Here's what my room looks like, and hopefully I'll get a picture of the outside soon... The living / dining scenario actually remind me a lot of being offshore in the Gulf.

The work I am doing up here is with a group of people reviewing drawings for most of the well pads (where the oil comes from!) and comparing it with what is actually in the field and documenting it all.

Here is a well pad with all the wells lined up in their cute little well houses.  (the ones on the left)



They put buildings on everything so people don't freeze while working on them, and so the oil itself doesn't freeze... the prospect of that happening makes me cold just thinking about it!

Here's a peak inside the well house.  It almost makes me laugh thinking that its so simple yet produces so much oil!

See... I actually am "working"

Since I was coming up for this well pad work, I decided to get some site visits in for some other project work that I am working on that is still in planning phases.

One of the projects is regarding work on a 60" natural gas line, which means the pipe is 5 feet in diameter... I was excited to see it because that is giant pipe!  here's a picture of the ends of the 60" lines, although without some reference it is hard to appreciate just hot big they are.

As the last piece of today's post, I was happy to see a tribute by the Prudhoe Bay firefighters to remember 9/11. 

I could write memories etc of 9/11 for me, but I will leave it with that I continue to pray for peace and a respect for all life.  And to thank those who have served for this country.