An Arctic Engineer's Story 1971 to 2006
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An Arctic Engineer’s Story 1971 to 2006 by Dan Masterson To my wife Ginny and my sons, Andrew, Greg, and Mark ii Preface In 1971, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I had just completed my PhD and was looking for work. I was told to contact Hans Kivisild who had just been given a contract from an oil company to investigate an engineering issue in the Arctic. This started my career in Arctic engineering, just when the second major exploration phase was beginning in the western Arctic, 123 years after Franklin started the first phase of exploration in the area. This recent phase was also filled with individuals who were going “where few had gone before,” but unlike the earlier explorers, these recent explorers were accompanied by regulators, scientists and engineers who wanted to ensure that the environment was protected and also to ensure that the operations were carried out in the safest and most cost- efficient manner. Between about 1970 to 1995, several oil companies and Arctic consulting companies turned Calgary into a world leader in Arctic technology. It was a time that one could have an idea, check it out in small scale, and within a year or so, use it in a full-scale operation. During the next 25 years, industry drilled many wells in the Arctic using the technologies described in this book. In 1995, the oil industry pulled out of the Arctic mainly due to lack of government incentives and poor drilling results. In 2016, both the Canadian and United States governments declared a moratorium on Arctic drilling. I retired in 2015, so I was fortunate that my career spanned the period of Beaufort Sea and Arctic Island exploration from start to end. Most of my work involved investigating pioneering ideas into the use of ice as a construction material for ice islands and ice platforms for exploratory drilling, and ice roads for moving the heavy equipment required by the oil and mining companies in the Arctic where there were no roads. The remainder of my work involved measuring the failure strength of ice to support the operational projects, and for use in ice interaction models to determine loads caused by both sea ice and glacial ice impacting structures. Most of this work has been written up over the years in a number of technical papers, which have been published in journals or presented in conferences by my colleagues and me. This book brings together this work into one place and presents it in a form that is of interest to engineers and non-engineers who have a keen interest in the Arctic. I also present anecdotal information of things that happened to me “behind the scenes” that have not been published anywhere else, but which, I feel, were interesting aspects of my career. iii Contents List of Figures v List of Tables v Acknowledgements vi 1. Introduction – The Genesis of Arctic Exploration 1 2. The Beginning of my Adventures into Arctic R and D 3 The Testing 5 3. The Ice Road at James Bay 7 4. Frozen Islands and Beaufort Sea Exploration in Canada 8 5. Arctic Islands Exploration 10 6. Frozen Mine Waste Wharf 15 7. Development of the Ice Borehole Jack 18 Initial design considerations 18 8. Labrador 20 9. Ship Expedition off Labrador and Davis Strait 26 10. Alaska 29 History of Prudhoe Bay Operations and West Dock 29 11. POAC ‘75 34 12. Sohio and North Slope Ice Roads 35 13. National Research Council of Canada(NRC) 37 14. Exploration Using Grounded Ice Islands 38 Spray Ice Island Wells 41 Amoco MARS (1986) 41 Esso Angasak (1987) 44 Chevron Karluk (1989) 44 Esso Nipterk P-32 (1989) 45 Pioneer Natural Resources (Ivik , Natchiq, Oooguruk - 2003) 46 15. Pond Inlet Iceberg Tests 48 16. Pond Inlet Indentor Tests: Equipment Design and Test Results 52 Hydraulic System 52 Accumulator 52 Actuator 52 High Pressure System Components Design 52 Materials for Hydraulic Vessels 53 Integrated Hydraulic System Design 53 Servo Control System 54 Data Acquisition System 55 Tunnel Excavation and Wall Milling 55 iv Field Tests and Test Procedure 58 Potentiometer Mounts 58 Servo-system Interaction 59 Discussion of Force versus Time Curves and System Performance 59 Equipment Design 61 Structural Systems – Indentors 61 Experimental Test Conclusion 62 17. Closure (To Be or Not to Be) 64 18. References 67 List of Figures Figure 1 Arctic Polar Region ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 2 Western Arctic Islands and US/Canadian Beaufort Seas ....................................................................................... 4 Figure 3 Ice Pit Test ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 Figure 4 Canadian Arctic Islands and Wells Drilled ........................................................................................................... 10 Figure 5 Land Rig on Ice Platform..................................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 6 Flooding a Floating Ice Platform with Electric Submersible Pumps ..................................................................... 12 Figure 7 Flooding an airstrip with an hydraulic powered pump ....................................................................................... 12 Figure 8 Hecla N-52 L-R Ray Young, Dan Masterson, Manos Kazakopoulos...................................................................... 12 Figure 9 Polaris Mine ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 10 Labrador ........................................................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 11 Crew Testing Labrador Ice 1976 – Author is on the far left ............................................................................... 23 Figure 12 Sealing Vessel in Labrador Pack - 1978 ............................................................................................................. 27 Figure 13 Barge with Modules ......................................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 14 Sealift 1976 ...................................................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 15 Alaska Map ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 16 1975 summer ice conditions in Bering Strait, North Slope Alaska, and Canadian Beaufort Sea. Note blockage of coastal route around Pt Barrow. ......................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 17 Large Rolligon ................................................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 18 “Baby” Rolligon with Drilling Auger and Auger Pump ....................................................................................... 36 Figure 19 Spraying Ice at MARS on left and Completed Island on right ............................................................................ 43 Figure 20 Location of Pioneer Wells ................................................................................................................................. 47 Figure 21 Shop Testing of Assembled Indenter Equipment in Calgary .............................................................................. 54 Figure 22 Excavating a tunnel, and a view of 3 of the tunnels from sea level ................................................................... 56 Figure 23 Aerial View of Iceberg and the 4 Test Tunnels during the tests ........................................................................ 57 Figure 24 Equipment in test tunnel and section through tested ice showing shape of ice indentation ............................ 57 Figure 25 Cross Section of 3 m2 Indentor ......................................................................................................................... 62 List of Tables Table 1 Nipterk Technical Summary (Weaver and Poplin, 1997) 46 Table 2 Schedule of Tests 58 v Acknowledgements The author does not pretend that the work and / or projects described in this book were the achievement solely of the author’s effort and knowledge. Many people with different knowledge, skill sets, and interests were required to pool their efforts and abilities to sell and then ensure the success of the work. The author feels very privileged to have worked with a large number of wonderful, competant people over the years, many of whom are still friends. Employers Fenco, Geotech, Sandwell, Chevron Supervisors and Fellow Professionals Dr Hans Kivisild, Dr Geoff Ransford, Gary Rose, Bill Scott, Bernard Lamarre, Jacque Lamarre, Sydney Green, Arnie Matiisen Colleague, client, fellow professional Ken Croasdale, Michel Metge, Roger Pilkington, Brian Wright. Ken Anderson, Don Nevel, Gordon Hood, Denis Baudais, Jim Strain, Lindsay Franklin, Richard Goff, Bob Potter, Jim Lewis, Bill Kuper Fellow professional, colleague Jacque Lamarre, Alain Pare, Jim Lucas, Hari Iyer, Al Strandberg, Bohdan (Boh) Wasilewski, Paul Spencer, Joe Kenny,