The North Slope

I'm sure a few of you are wondering how I went from talking about the heat of Arizona to driving on ice roads! Then there's the fact that several family members have been lovingly hounding me to post pictures of my latest adventure. Plus I finally feel a bit more caught up on my school work means that I could update my blog!!

Welcome Home!

Well, Scott's home anyway - this is where he has spent a good part of the previous 3.5 years. Last month he mentioned in a phone call that the company was looking for medical coverage for the island for the shoulder season. What that means is they are finishing up an oil production facility on an island 3.5 miles offshore (this is a man made island). During the shoulder season transportation back and forth is limited and not always reliable. There is always a mid level provider at the on shore camp - but it could take anywhere from an hour to several days to get the patient to them. I will be here until June 27th. Where is here? Go to Google maps and put in: Oliktok Point, Alaska. Then pan out and look for Anchorage - then Seattle. We are a long way from no where.

This is the on shore production facility - aka OPP. It is operational; they are producing oil.


This is the other side of OPP - the tall structure is the drill rig. It moves and has been in use for quite a few years. To the left is the production facility. If I get enough interest I'll try to do a blog on what it takes to drill oil - more than you would think, believe me.

These are some kind of electrical mods - I took a picture because I thought they looked like a space craft out of Star Trek...

A view from the "bear hide" looking down onto a very busy pad. The orange building is called the "wif" and the long row of gray buildings are all well house's. The spot where all the cranes are parked will be where the drill rig sits.

Large crane moving a very expensive module. Everything around here is planned out, talked out and then executed; "plan your work, work your plan."

These are both salt water wells - farthest north water wells in the world is what I was told. Eventually they will have a water treatment plant in order to convert this to drinking water.

An oil well - actually an expensive hole in the ground right now. The white you see down there is ice. We were standing in a building with multiple wells.