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Hilcorp files EWE pipelines app with state for new lines at PBU
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
North Slope, the Prudhoe Bay unit operator, has filed a unit plan of operations amendment with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources- Division of Oil and Gas for the EWE, Eileen West End, pipelines project. This follows an application the company filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier in the year, as reported in Petroleum News July 30, for gravel placement, some 13,000 cubic yards, onto 1.4 acres of palustrine emergent wetland for pad expansion at the Eileen West End junction to support tie-in infrastructure for the project.
In its project description to the division, Hilcorp said west side Schrader, Kuparuk and Ivishak reservoirs "offer substantial opportunity for development" but the pipeline and header system limits "the capacity to produce economic wells at L, V, W, and Z pads."
The proposed project, the company said, would "improve flow from EWE Junction to GC2 through the installation of a new production and new gas lift line," reducing constraints and improving capacity for development of economic wells at those pads.
Pipelines There are two pipelines in the project, a 30-inch large diameter flowline and a 14-inch gas lift line, both connecting Gathering Center 2 and the Eileen West End junction in the western operating area at Prudhoe.
Hilcorp said the new pipelines will be approximately 35,000 feet in length and require installation of new piperack with new vertical support members and horizontal support members for the majority of the pipeline route, with additional VSMs and HSMs added to existing piperack at the Kuparuk River crossing.
An ice road and equipment turnarounds will support installation of the pipelines.
An expansion of the EWE junction pad will be some 1.1 acres to accommodate a 30-inch pig launcher, a 14-inch gas receiver and associated infrastructure. Hilcorp said the installation of new pipelines and associated pad expansion will result in a cumulative impact of 1.4 acres.
Approximately 600 new VSMs will be installed, 550 required for the new pipeline and the remainder to complete tie-ins at EWE junction and GC2.
The new VSMs will be approximately 7 feet above tundra, with existing piperack to be used on the Kuparuk River crossing, and all other areas requiring "new piperack due to lack of space, structural capacity and/or interference with a topographical feature." Hilcorp said that the piperack between U pad and GC2 does not have structural integrity to accommodate the two new lines, and that portion of the pipe will be routed across the road, avoiding problematic topographic features that would impede construction.
Comments on the project are due to the division by 4:30 p.m. Alaska Standard Time Dec. 3.
Two-year project Hilcorp said the schedule calls for work to begin in January 2024, with completion anticipated by December 2025.
January through May 2024 work includes gravel expansions at the Eileen West End junction and U pad intersections, followed by prework and construction at Gathering Center 2 and the EWE junction tie-in locations from June through November, along with prework at the Kuparuk River crossing.
Ice road and bridge construction and pipeline installation are scheduled for January through April of 2025, with final tie-in to facilities/lines in service from May through July 2025.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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