Oil industry mobilization and demobilization.

• Author: Anderson, Tom
• Position: OIL & GAS

Scroll through any set of accounting books addressing international or domestic petroleum operations and under the heading of "Costs" will be listed the mobilization and demobilization of oil and gas field drilling machinery, equipment, supplies, and personnel.

There is no disputing that oil is the driving engine of Alaska's economy, a truth that can be authenticated by its frequent media coverage and witnessed by the many who fly over Cook Inlet and see the signature flame exhaling from a rig pipe.

The drilling part of the oil and gas equation lies with exploration and development drilling, and both require equipment and infrastructure to be set up and then taken down, or in industry parlance, mobilized and demobilized.

Exploration drilling refers to drilling in areas where there is some uncertainty about the formations being drilled. Generally, these geologic formations have not been routinely drilled and mapped. This is where the term "wildcat drilling" comes from. Petroleum explorers have a good idea of elements beneath the surface, but drilling has not begun. The value in these wells is in the information they provide the operators: whether or not there is oil or gas.

Exploration drilling can happen onshore and offshore in areas including Cook Inlet, the North Slope, and on the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Onshore and offshore rigs are the most prevalent expense and notable equipment brought to and removed from Alaska when it comes to petroleum extraction. Whether to the shallow Beaufort Sea or the deeper Chukchi Sea or other Arctic waterways, international and local petroleum companies expend enormous amounts of time and capital to bring and remove equipment. Baker Hughes has issued its monthly global rig count and analytics since 1944 for the petroleum industry, and as its website confirms, the counts "are an important business barometer for the drilling industry and its suppliers. When drilling rigs are active they consume products and services produced by the oil service industry. The active rig count acts as a leading indicator of demand for products used in drilling, completing, producing, and processing hydrocarbons."

Nabors Alaska Drilling

Nabors Alaska Drilling has been performing Arctic exploration drilling in Alaska since the early 1960s and operates the largest land drilling rig fleet in the world with approximately five hundred rigs working in twenty-five countries. Nabor's general manager Dave Hebert delineated that remote exploration drilling in the Arctic requires rigs that are specifically designed to operate in Alaska's harsh winter conditions.

There are two rig designs: large wheeled, self-propelled and truck pulled rigs where each module can weigh as much as 2.8 million pounds or light-weight components style rigs that can be moved by trucks or Tundra Cats. The smaller rigs can be moved in loads as light as forty-five thousand pounds. Larger wheeled rigs require construction of ice roads for transporting across the frozen tundra. Tundra Cats are capable of moving component rigs over the tundra without the need of ice roads. Moving these monstrous units in and out of Alaska illustrates the process and challenges of mobilization and demobilization.

Exploration rigs are generally dispatched for mobilization from Nabors's yards in Deadhorse. The mobilization process varies from...