Roads, Pads, and Access Along Gravel Free Pipeline Routes Available to Purchase

In many of the major oil and gas fields in the North American Arctic, gravel is abundant and close to the production fields and the pipeline routes. In many other Arctic areas in Europe and Asia, gravel is almost non-existent. As new fields are being developed, gravel free areas are being encountered in more areas such as the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) and many of the Russian oil fields west and east of the Ural Mountains and into the Yamal Peninsula. Without free draining gravel, access and development of these new fields becomes more costly, more schedule sensitive, and more complicated. This paper looks at options for roads, pads, and access for developing the oil fields and building and operating the pipelines in areas where gravel deposits are sparse. Some of the options that are discussed and evaluated are using: 1. Additives to increase the strength of available fine-grained materials. 2. Ice and snow pads and roads. 3. Seasonal scheduling of construction. 4. Various road and pad surfacing options including: a) Year-around ice pads, b) Concrete pads and pavements, and c) Mats constructed of various materials. 5. Dredging and draining to obtain available sandy materials from waterways. 6. Geofabrics to contain ice rich materials placed in winter. 7. Methods for maintaining the thermal state of winter placed embankment.