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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 148 / Thursday, August 5, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
occurs daily with roads from Central Pad to the airstrip experiencing the heaviest use. This consistent heavy use is not influenced by time of year.
Vehicle types include light passenger trucks/vans, heavy tractor-trailer trucks, and heavy equipment usage on pads, particularly for snow removal and dust control.
Personnel and most cargo are transported to Point Thomson using aircraft departing from Deadhorse.
During normal operations, an average of two to four passenger flights per week land at the Point Thomson Airport.
Typically, there are 12 cargo flights per year or one per month that may land at Point Thomson, but frequency is reduced January to April when tundra is open. Aerial pipeline inspection surveys are conducted weekly, and environmental surveys and operations typically occur for one to two weeks each summer. The environmental surveys are generally performed at remediation sites such as West Staines State 2 and 18923, areas of pipeline maintenance, and tundra travel routes.
Off-road vehicles e.g., Rolligons and track vehicles are only used during the summer tundra months for emergency purposes such as accessing the pipeline.
During winter months, off-road vehicles provide access to spill response conexes, deliver cargo supplies from Deadhorse, and maintain and inspect the PTU. Tundra travel includes a route south of the pipeline from Deadhorse to Point Thomson, a route along the pipeline right-of-way ROW, spur roads as needed between the southern route and the pipeline ROW, and a route to spill conexes totaling approximately 146.5 km 91 mi. Travel along these routes can occur at any time of day.
Temporary ice roads and pads near the Point Thomson Facility are built to move heavy equipment to areas otherwise inaccessible for maintenance and construction activities. Ice road and ice pad construction typically begins in December or January. An ice road to Point Thomson is typically needed in the event that a drilling rig needs to be mobilized and extends east from the Endicott Road, connects to the Badami facilities, and continues east along the coast to Point Thomson.
Barging usually occurs from mid-July through September. In the event additional barging operations are needed, dredging and screeding activities may occur to allow barges to dock at Point Thomson. If dredging and screeding activities are necessary, the work would take place during the openwater season and would last less than a week. ExxonMobil also performs emergency response and oil spill
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trainings during the summer season. On occasion, spill response boats are used to transport operations and maintenance personnel to Badami for pipeline maintenance.
Expansion activities are expected to occur over 4 years and would consist of new facilities and new wells on the Central Pad to increase gas and condensate production. The Central Pad would require a minor expansion of only 2.8 ha 7 ac to the southwest.
Minor size increases on infield pipelines will also occur, but the facility footprint would not otherwise increase.
To support this project, an annual ice road would be constructed, and summer barging activities would occur to transport a drilling rig, additional construction camps, field personnel, fuel, equipment, and other supplies or materials. Gravel would be sourced from an existing stockpile, supplemented by additional gravel volume that would be sourced offsite as necessary. Drilling of wells is expected to occur during the later years of construction, and new modular production facilities would be fabricated offsite and then delivered via sealift.
A small number of barge trips <10
annually are expected to deliver equipment, fuel, and supplies during the open-water season mid-July through September from Deadhorse and may occur at any time of day.
Additional development activities are planned within PTU and are described in the section Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas Project Alaska LNG.
Prudhoe Bay Unit The Prudhoe Bay Unit PBU is the largest producing oilfield in North America and is operated by Hilcorp.
The PBU includes satellite oilfields Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Polaris, and Orion. The total development area is approximately 1,778 ha 4,392 ac, including 450 km 280 mi of gravel roads, 2,543 km 1,580 mi of pipelines, 4 gravel mines, and over 113 gravel pads. Camp facilities such as the Prudhoe Bay Operations Center, Main Construction Camp, Base Operations Center, and Tarmac camp are also within the PBU.
PBU facilities are connected by gravel roads and can be accessed from the Dalton Highway year-round. Equipment and supplies are flown or transported over land from Anchorage and Fairbanks to Deadhorse before they are taken to the PBU over land. Traffic is constant across the PBU with arterial routes between processing facilities and camps experiencing the heaviest use while drill site access roads are traveled far less except during active drilling,
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maintenance, or other projects. Traffic is not influenced by the time of year.
Vehicle types include light passenger trucks, heavy tractor-trailer trucks, heavy equipment, and very large drill rigs.
Personnel and cargo are transported to the PBU on regularly scheduled, commercial passenger flights through Deadhorse and then transported to camp assignments via bus. Pipeline surveys are flown every 7 days departing from CPAIs Alpine airstrip beginning the flight route at Pump Station 1 and covering a variety of routes in and around the Gathering Center 2, Flow Station 2, Central Compressor Pad, West Gas Injection, and East Sag facilities.
Pipelines are also surveyed once per day from the road system using a truckmounted forward-looking infrared camera system. Various environmental studies are also conducted using aircraft. Surveys include polar bear den detection and tundra rehabilitation and revegetation studies. Tundra environmental studies occur annually each summer in July and August with field personnel being transported to sites over an average of 4 days. Flights take off and return to Deadhorse airport, and field landings include seven tundra sites an average of 25.7 km 16 mi from Deadhorse airport. Only four of the seven tundra landing sites are within 8
km 5 mi of the Beaufort coast.
Unmanned aerial systems UAS are used for subsidence, flare, stack, and facility inspections from June to September as well as annual flood surveillance in the spring. UAS depart and arrive at the same location and only fly over roads, pipeline ROWs, and/or within 1.6 km 1 mi or line of sight of the pad.
Off-road vehicles such as Rolligons and Tuckers are used for maintenance and inspection activities during the summer to access pipelines and/or power poles that are not located adjacent to the gravel roads. These vehicles typically operate near the road 152 m 500 ft and may operate for 24
hours a day during summer months.
During winter months, temporary ice roads and pads are built to move heavy equipment to areas that may be inaccessible. Winter tundra travel distances and cumulative ice road lengths average about 120.7 and 12.1 km 75 and 7.5 mi, respectively, and may occur at any hour of the day. An additional 0.8 ha 2 ac of ice pads are constructed each winter.
West Dock is the primary marine gateway to the greater Prudhoe Bay area with users including Industry vessels, cargo ships, oil spill responders, subsistence users, and to a lesser degree,
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