WorldWide Drilling Resource

Working on Alaska’s North Slope Adapted from a News Release by ExxonMobil Kaitlyn Payne grew up in a small suburb of Washington, D.C., but these days she works in Point Thomson, a remote jobsite in northern Alaska, some 60 miles from the nearest village. For most of the year, Point Thomson is accessible only by ice road or plane, apart from a brief, ice-free summer season when boats can dock. Payne is an environmental engineer responsible for ensuring Point Thomson, which produces a form of light oil called condensate, complies with local, state, and federal regulations. Payne earned her biosys- tems engineering degree from Clemson University in 2012, and caught the eye of ExxonMobil with her senior project, a method for conver t ing some of the school’s vehicle fleet to run on recycled cooking oil. After working in Texas for a couple of years, she was asked to move to Alaska to support the construction of Point Thomson. As an environmental profes- sional, her responsibilities in- cluded everything from securing complex air permits to developing programs that minimize the potential for employee interactions with polar bears. Alaska, and particularly the North Slope, is a sensitive environment highly reg- ulated by federal, state, and local government agencies. Due to its uniqueness, there are many North Slope-specific regulations which do not apply anywhere else in the United States, including seasonal restrictions on tundra travel and monitoring for polar bear dens. Navigating these complex rules while the winter weather plunges to -50ºF (-45ºC) is not easy, but there’s no place Payne would rather be. “For an environmental engineer, it is an incredible opportunity to live and work in a place as unique as Alaska, especially on the North Slope. I have a new perspective on the challenges facing the Arctic and how governments, communities, and in- dustry can work together,” Payne said. Part of the fun comes from the technology the environmental team has championed to minimize Point Thomson’s footprint. They piloted a first-of-its-kind military-grade ground surveillance radar system designed to warn employees of approaching polar bears from up to 1000 yards away. Once the radar picks up on a bear’s movement, a camera monitors the animal. If it comes close enough to the work site, protocols help limit interaction to keep both bears and humans safe. Payne and her team also map out the locations of snow dens where preg- nant bears stay during the winter to give birth to their cubs. ExxonMobil employs aircraft with specialized forward-looking infrared cameras which sense heat from the dens to help pinpoint, and avoid, their locations. Payne is also excited about piloting the use of satellites to monitor caribou and other animals. High-resolution satel- lite data can be collected without disturb- ing animals on the ground and has the potential to be more cost-effective and accurate than current methods, thanks to the area’s high level of satellite cover- age. It’s data the team is looking to share with the academic and science commu- nity, too. Payne (bottom left) and other members of the Point Thomson team and community of Kaktovik, Alaska. 14 MAY 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®