Parker Drilling's Arctic Alaska drilling units: Rigs No. 272 and No. 273 help BP move forward.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: OIL & GAS - Cover story

It was a typical winter day in February 2013 on Alaska's North Slope when Parker Drilling's Rig No. 272 started its inaugural journey from the Crazy Horse Pad in Deadhorse to its first drilling site.

It was minus forty degrees Fahrenheit-not counting wind chill, which was a numbing minus sixty. Visibility was limited. The rig was moved over the fragile tundra via an ice road, which blended in so well with the all-white landscape that a crew of spotters was needed to walk alongside the rig to help the driver stay on route. The spotters were rotated out after ten minutes to limit their exposure to the frigid conditions.

It takes a special brand of people, and specialized training, to work in such extreme conditions, but as anyone knows who has tried to start a car left in a Fairbanks parking lot too long in midwinter, the design of the equipment used in arctic conditions is equally important. That's why BP Alaska turned to Parker Drilling Co. for two state-of-the-art drilling rigs, No. 272 and its sibling, No. 273. The initial cost of the two rigs was estimated at $385 million.

Extreme Experience

The choice of Texas-based Parker Drilling to design and build the rigs was based on the company's decades of experience in extreme environments.

"Parker has decades of experience in operating successfully in extreme climates and under the most challenging Arctic conditions, including helping our customers successfully achieve world records in extended reach drilling operations," Parker Drilling spokeswoman Stephanie Dixon says. "Our unique expertise positions us well to create comprehensive, effective solutions from both an equipment and operations standpoint. We draw upon this experience constantly as we design our rigs and work to continually improve our processes."

The rigs were delivered to Alaska in 2011 and after some modifications went into production late in December 2012 and February 2013. Rigs No. 272 and No. 273 are called Arctic Alaska Drilling Units and were designed and engineered specifically for the harsh climate and sensitive environment of Alaska's North Slope oil fields.

Parker Drilling was founded in 1934 by G. C. Parker, who pioneered the use of diesel electric-powered drilling rigs. A decade later, its rigs were being used in Canada and Venezuela. It went public in 1969.

Over its eighty-year history, Parker Drilling has worked around the globe, from the Peruvian jungle to Oklahoma, the former Soviet Union, China, and...