Drilling of U.S.’s First Hydrate Well Underway
A new onshore drilling platform enables tapping a potentially immense source of energy.
“We saw what could be the drilling platform of tomorrow tapping the energy resource of tomorrow,” says Carl Michael Smith, DOE’s assistant secretary for fossil energy. Smith and other department officials visited the “Arctic Platform,” a lightweight, 100-by-100-foot aluminum drilling platform elevated a dozen feet above the frozen tundra on specially designed steel legs. Based on platforms similar to those used offshore, the Arctic Platform is compact and modular, allowing it to be safely transported by air or with ultra-low-impact vehicles called rolligons. The platform was developed by Anadarko Petroleum Corp., headquartered in Houston. Although the prototype platform is a scaled-down version of the one that would be deployed in future commercial operations, the concept could one day eliminate the need for gravel pads and the temporary ice roads and ice pads that now must be used on the North Slope.