North Slope units ready to move crude

A major building program completed recently on Alaska's North Slope beat the weather, the calendar, and the budget. The project covers the crude-oil and gas-handling facilities in the eastern half of Prudhoe Bay field. These units were finished about 60 days ahead of schedule and about 5% under budget. This timetable was established despite the severe winter of 1975 that forced part of the supply armada from the Lower 48 to turn back to an alternate destination due to heavy pack ice. Modular construction and the high productivity of construction crews were the reasons the Prudhoe Bay units were finished ahead of schedule and under budget, according to I.J. Blanco, project director and vice-president of Ralph M. Parsons Co. The principal units covered in Parsons' contract with ARCO include 2 flow stations with the capacity to handle 360,000 bpd each and a central compressor plant that will handle all Prudhoe Bay gas for reinjection. The compressor plant has a capacity of 1,600 MMcfd. In addition, the ARCO work included building 10 drill-site facilities, 2 bridges--one for pipelines, another for vehicles--over the Sag River, about 70 miles of gas and oil gathering lines, and camp facilities for 1,675 construction personnel andmore » 432 permanent personnel. The Parsons contract covered approx. $1.6 billion in work.« less