Arctic Engineering For the Petroleum Industry

Abstract

Abstract THE ARCTIC has been defined in a variety of ways by latitude or tree line, by isotherm or permafrost. For this paper, it will be considered simply as that part of Canada lying north of the 60th parallel. Most of what is discussed here will apply specifically to the sedimentary basin, the prospective oil country bring in the Northwest Territories; other countries, however, also have very prospective arctic areas, and many of their problems will be similar (Figure 1). Long before the current surge of interest in the north, major construction projects had been successfully undertaken in arctic Canada. One of the most outstanding was a railway from Skagway to Whitehorse: built seventy years ago, it is still hauling freight and is an important part of the transportation system supplying the Yukon Territory. In northern Manitoba, the Churchill railway was begun in 1910, through most difficult permafrost conditions. War halted construction for a time, but the line was completed in the late nineteen twenties. Since then we have had various hydropower developments, the construction of major transmission lines and, in the military field, the Early Warning system and the DEW line. The oil industry development along the Mackenzie was started over 50 years ago, and an outstanding achievement during the war years was the construction of some 660 miles of pipeline from Norman Wells to Whitehorse. These represent only a few of the major construction projects on which, over the past several decades, nearly five billion dollars has been spent. The engineering problems discussed here will be those that are unique to the north. They include climate, permafrost, ice and snow, terrain, and remoteness. Although these problems are not new to Canadian engineers, when they have to be faced together they call for new approaches to the engineering development of large-scale oil and gas reserves. To add to the challenge, these developments are going on at a time when everyone is aware of "ecology" and "pollution" as matters of grave public concern. Development of northern Canada will go on, but every effort must be made to establish a proper balance between resource development and environmental protection. This paper will outline our present state of the art and suggest some new approaches to work that will be required. Climate We share our Canadian arctic climate with Russia, Alaska and the Scandinavian countries (Figure 2). In winter it features intense cold, high winds and darkness, in summer long hours of daylight and very little precipitation – so that without the permafrost, the Canadian arctic would be largely a desert. Although we have most of the know-how to be able to design equipment suitable for these conditions, very often what is available has been made for warmer climates and simply moved north for its useful life. We should not be surprised, then, if it performs badly, or fails from such causes as brittle fracture of steel.