The Oooguruk Field Development Project involved construction of a gravel drilling/production island six-miles offshore of the Colville River Delta in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea. An onshore facilities pad was also installed adjacent to an existing ConocoPhillips Kuparuk production facility. As Program Manager for the for the flowlines installation, Price Gregory's workscope was to install the interconnecting pipelines and associated power and fiber optic cables between the island and the production facility and further extend the flowlines to tie-in points on existing ConocoPhillips infrastructure.

The 5.7-mile offshore segment consisted of 12' production line placed inside a 16' carrier pipe, an 8' concrete-coated water injection line, a 6 gas injection line and a 2' coiled tubing fuel line. The completed pipelines were bundled together using specially developed bundle spacers and straps. The composite flowline bundle was then lowered-in eight feet beneath the seabed through a trench cut into the grounded sea ice. Paralleling the flowline bundle in a separate subsea trench were three 27KV armored power cables and a fiber optic cable.

The 2.5-mile onshore segment required installation of 440 VSMs and HSMs with associated pipe saddles and anchors. A messenger wire system was also suspended from the supports to accommodate the onshore power and fiber optic cables. The water injection line was extended an additional 2 miles on existing supports to a tie-in point adjacent to the new pigging facility.

Price Gregory's involvement on the Oooguruk Project began almost one year ahead of field execution. Our participation early-on in the planning and design phase helped determine the direction in which the offshore ice would be grounded and the direction the pipelines would be laid, bundled and lowered-in. Our personnel also had input as to the actual configuration of the pipeline bundle and location of the trenched-in power/fiber optic cables relative to the flowline trench. Constructability reviews of the island departure and shore crossing designs resulted in a configuration that enabled the power/fiber optic cables to transition easily onto the VSM's at the shore crossing. Price was also central in developing and procuring various prototypes, including bundle spacers, bundle straps and offshore insulation kits, in addition to facilitating a bundle mock-up and ultimately completing a destructive test of the bundle complete with load cells, video recorders and detailed deflection measurements. We also developed the methodology for uncoiling and trenching-in the power and fiber optic cables which had rigid temperature requirements during installation.

Price Gregory was also tasked with materials procurement and logistics activities normally completed by the owner. Onshore our personnel coordinated the fabrication/ manufacturing and purchase of the onshore pipe support system, vibration dampeners, fittings, flanges and field joint kits in addition to the double jointing, spool fabrication and assembly of the pigging facility. Offshore we were responsible for the bundle spacers, bundle straps, field joint kits and anode tapers. Price Gregory was also tasked with shipping all flowline-related materials from Fairbanks to the jobsite and in some cases from the point of manufacture to the jobsite.

The project was completed on schedule thereby ensuring Pioneer's anticipated start-up date.