Busy Hitch...

[Ratdog68]

We had a LOT of bad weather days this time. Day after day of 50mph with gusts to 70mph. The hovercraft blew an engine and was down for a few days... so, that meant everything (personnel travel and gear hauling) was done via helo. The day's a busy one with ten or so passenger trips and sling load trips. Especially with our helo being big/powerful enough to make it to Fairbanks (from our location)... meaning, TSA clearance for EVERY person, EVERY time they board. Doesn't matter that it's a 5 minute flight (4 miles).

"Rig Moves" are always fun too... especially with so little room to move things around to facilitate it. 1.5 million pounds, breaking down into three major components... new layer of containment to be spread out, covered with "rig mats" (a 40' x 20' mat of 2"x6" standing on edge, contained within a steel framework)... each piece is "driven" back from the well house, the tires rotated 90 degrees and it's driven laterally to the next locale, tires rotated 90 degrees, and driven up to the next well house spot. Then Humpty-Dumpty is reassembled in place.

No bears this hitch... but, saw some fox tracks on the bags just before I left to come home.

Oddly, the ocean is slow to freeze up this winter. Usually, by now, they're beginning construction of the ice road. NOT this year. The hovercraft was creating a "wave" ahead of it (beneath the ice)... but the ice was remaining intact. That was for MY ride to shore. Everything previously was chunks of ice breaking apart and floating atop the water when the hovercraft approached.

In this pic (a year ago) some "genius" chose NOT to lay rig mats down for this rig move (on shore). If you look to the lower left part of the pic, you can see culverts. Let's just say... the rig sunk when the culverts collapsed beneath the weight of it. This rig (similar to the one on our island) piece shows you the scale of it. This is just ONE component, there's usually five. And, yes, it blocked the entire width of the road until they could get it moved... there's NO "other route" around it either. They had to build an access road to by-pass it (environmental permitting nightmare in and of itself), and had to helo people the 50 miles to/from the airport... as well as groceries, materials, tools, etc. Yeah, he got his walking papers for that judgment call.

Below, "rig mats" are stacked on the deck of the barge, in front of the excavator.

 

[FrankT]

Cool, Thanks RD

 

[Ratdog68]

"Home Sweet Home" for half my life. LOL

Aluminum foil on the windows allows the room to be DARK while sleeping. Two beds per room. I share the room with my night shift counter part. Nice to have the room to yourself.

After these pix... they installed flat screen TVs above each room's door, with Dish Network.

Right across the hall from my room... individual 3/4 baths, and enough of 'em to facilitate the number of rooms, so no standing and waiting in line to shower... and each one allows for privacy. Big laundry room with commercial washers/driers in them, and about four laundry rooms per floor, so there's enough for everyone's needs. "New" camps are NICE to have. And, do NOT be "that guy"... found abusing the facilities... good way to get removed from the contract (for good). It's kept very clean and orderly.

 

[Itsazonik]

sounds like an interesting task. love the pictures. everythings always a little more difficult up there

 

[FrankT]

That is cool, so you stay on that island your entire shift?

 

[Ratdog68]

That is cool, so you stay on that island your entire shift?

Yup (but, not just "shift", HITCH)... sitting and looking out to the horizon, hours on end, wondering whether "that chunk of ice just moved"... and, sometimes it did... and WAS "just ice". LOL Or, investigating a "bear sighting" and having to be tactful when assuring the poor soul it was just an arctic fox, or, sometimes, JUST a seagull.

 

[Itsazonik]

What happens if the bears actually get too close?

 

[FrankT]

Does the island float, get over topped by the water, how close to land?

 

[Ratdog68]

That's when I have to be very careful in my choice of actions, since EVERY detail goes on paper and submitted to environmental, USF&WS, AKF&G... In a perfect world, I'll request an "all call" (announcement on all radio frequencies at once) for people to take cover in a building (which means they all run to where the bear can be seen with I-Phones in hand to take pix... and start hounding me to borrow the binocs so they can get a better pix through the binocs), and I'll take the least aggressive "hazing" approach to encourage the bear to go away. Worst case scenario... shoot a bear with a 12ga. slug (attack of a worker about to happen) and begin justifying my existence post-event. LOL

 

[Ratdog68]

Does the island float, get over topped by the water, how close to land?

Island is built up... the deepest part between the barrier island and shore is about 8'. We're 3.5 miles from shore. Each of those white bags seen... are about 8' long, filled with gravel, and are erosion prevention shore line for us. The barrier island protects us from the heavy seas during storms.

 

[FrankT]

So the rig that was moved was onshore not on the island?

 

[Itsazonik]

damn bears, don't they know to just go to their side of the ice drift? lol

 

[Ratdog68]

The rig you SEE in the pic was moved... the pic of the rig on shore was to illustrate the scale of the thing up close. In the pic above, it's at the western end of where it goes (pic faces north), there are about 30 well locations going to the east (right) along that line of space. We're just over half way through our drilling phase. There's talk of another two well houses (each holds about ten wells), and possibly another island (like ours, to the west) later on down the road (job security). They LIKE what we're doing.

 

[Ratdog68]

damn bears, don't they know to just go to their side of the ice drift? lol

For now, MOSTLY, yes. The noise, diesel exhaust smell, heavy equipment moving about... is deterrent for them. ONCE in a while, there's that ONE bear though.

 

[Afalex1]

All very cool RD. The rooms vaguely remind me of my last trip to the sandbox, but yours are much nicer. Mine was just a modified conex that two guys shared with beds and wall lockers.

 

[FrankT]

So you are doing directional drilling from each island, 10 per you say? then you move how far??

 

[Ratdog68]

All very cool RD. The rooms vaguely remind me of my last trip to the sandbox, but yours are much nicer. Mine was just a modified conex that two guys shared with beds and wall lockers.

No Tom Cruise-like comments from me. Life is GOOD on the island, and we make certain new folks KNOW it and abide by how things are. WAY less political B.S. (compared to shore), way less stress than they impose on themselves over there. Folks pull together and it's more "family" on the island.

We have good cooks, home cooked meals, and a Baker on at night to make us fresh treats daily. Coffee is ground fresh for every batch made, and a feller can just walk into the cooler for a quart of 1/2 n 1/2 for his coffee.

I need to get a Go Pro one of these days.

 

[Itsazonik]

i love having my go pro. hoping to get it on a hog hunt soon

 

[Ratdog68]

So you are doing directional drilling from each island, 10 per you say? then you move how far??

From each WELL... ten wells per well house, we have three well houses currently. Move distance varies, sometimes it's half the length of the island, sometimes it's over just a couple spots, depends on what the plans specify. We recently finished the second longest directional drill in the world.

"eni" (out of Italy) is a bigger presence in the Gulf of Mexico than in Alaska, but are a world wide player. They're liking what they're getting from their investment thus far. Good news for us.

I ALMOST snagged up an extra two weeks' worth of work on the other end of the field.. Exxon/Mobil is ramping up at the far east end and was wanting some bear protection... but, they couldn't get their act together to finalize having me there for this two weeks. That's another huge undertaking. A bare 11 acre pad being built up to a 52 acre pad. Ice road by winter, helo support by summer.

 

[FrankT]

film series a day in the life of RD...