More than 80 people working for a variety of contractors hired by the Denali group spent much of the summer completing various research tasks related to a proposed natural gas pipeline project being advanced by North Slope oil producers BP and ConocoPhillips.

The two oil producers joined forces earlier this year, announcing plans to form a new company called Denali-The Alaska Gas Pipeline, a project to construct and operate a gas line capable of transporting North Slope natural gas to Canadian and Lower 48 markets.

BP and ConocoPhillips said they would collectively spend $600 million to take their gas line project to an open season by the end of 2010. That spending began this summer, with a field season budgeted for about $40 million.

“We did complete all the work we set out to complete, and added to that, we came in on schedule and a little under budget, so we're very happy,” said Craig Dotson, an Anchorage-based ConocoPhillips employee who was assigned the project manager position for the Denali 2008 development program.

Also, this year's summer season was considered successful because the field crews had no safety or environmental incidents, a primary goal of the effort, Dotson said. “Second, we developed some pretty solid relationships in the area,” he said.

Focusing on the gas pipeline route from Delta Junction to the Alaska-Yukon Territory border, crews conducted cultural resource investigations, hydrology work, contaminated site investigations, wetlands and ecological land survey work and aerial photography. Most of the contractors working for the Denali group this summer have already performed field work on past Alaska gas pipeline field studies completed by the producers.

ConocoPhillips has also assigned engineering personnel to work on soil and air temperature monitoring work, as well as route reconnaissance and pinch point analysis, for areas where there are limited routing options or site-specific conditions. Interdisciplinary teams consisting of construction engineers, design engineers, geophysical specialists, environmental scientists and land specialists will work to refine routing at these “pinch points,” the company said.

Within the Denali organization, ConocoPhillips is taking the lead on field work and preparation for construction of the gas pipeline, while BP is taking the lead on the North Slope gas treatment plant that will be required by the project. Should the partners decide that additional gas pipe is required for transportation south of Alberta, BP will take the lead on that section of the project, the companies said.

In late September, about 25 field workers remained in the Tok area, completing archeological surveys along the proposed route. Earlier this summer, those archeological crews working for Fairbanks-based Northern Land Use Research Inc., completed cultural resource identification and research studies along the gasline route. That work involved crews consisting of seven people walking along a roughly 300-foot swath of the proposed gas line route, looking for historic and prehistoric sites, said Howard Smith, Tok area supervisor for NLUR.

A total of 70 archeological sites were investigated during this summer's field season, Dotson said in late September. Those archeological crews found a hammer stone, a tool that could have been either a knife or a projectile, and some other small fragments left behind by people years ago, Smith said earlier this summer.

The archeological work this fall also includes researching and clearing specific sites along the proposed route for drilling work scheduled for this winter, Dotson said.

“We want to have the site clearance we need so contractors can clear the trees for us to drill where we want to drill,” Dotson said. “We'll be mobilizing February of next year with drilling contractors, drilling 100 boreholes between Delta Junction and the border.”

Two small Nodwell drilling rigs will work on that effort, with plans for each hole to be drilled 40 to 60 feet deep. Drill cores will be gathered so that geotechnical research can be completed, Dotson said.

“We're looking for soil conditions, mainly at the river crossings,” he said.

The Denali group is looking for area residents to do the actual brush and tree clearing work to provide access for the drilling rig, Dotson said. Drilling work will be conducted in winter, while the ground is frozen. “There is less impact on the area if we do it in the wintertime,” he said.

Other work planned for winter months, beginning this November and running through April, is cold weather hydrology work. That work is planned for potential river and stream crossing sites, from Prudhoe Bay to the border.

“They'll be looking at the depth of ice, what the river conditions are in winter,” Dotson said. “We'll take that data, combined with the summer hydrology data, and that will start to give us an idea of the types of crossings at all these stream and river crossings.”

Including work that started this summer, roughly 538 stream and river crossings in Alaska are currently being considered for the gas pipeline project, he said.

Contractors PND and Michael Baker will conduct that winter hydrology work, Dotson said. A request for bids is currently out for the winter drilling planned for the first of 2009.

Both crews will be managed out of the Tok office, which is staying open this winter.

“Typically in the Tok area, the hotels are pretty empty in the winter, so this is a nice shot in arm for winter business for Tok folks,” Dotson said.

As with the summer program, crews staying in Tok have been lodged in local hotels or bed and breakfast-style lodging. Many take their meals at local restaurants such as Fast Eddy's, a popular restaurant located on the Alaska Highway. This winter's slate of work planned will cost between $5 million and $6 million, Dotson said.

In addition to the field work, managers in Anchorage are working on preparations for next year's summer field season, to include more on-the-ground work in Alaska and in Canada.

“Part of this is getting access, so we'll be working the access issues this winter in Canada,” Dotson said. “We'll be putting together all our plans to allow us to work there in 2009, depending on when we get access.”

Government-owned lands will be easily accessible and will be likely the start of the Canadian field work. The pipeline group has yet to finalize access agreements with private landowners in Canada, primarily First Nations tribes who own land along the proposed route.