ib516 wrote:
rjstractor wrote:
Grit, if you guys don't work the trucks hard then why diesel? Do the gas engines have just as many or more problems in those conditions?
Because everything in the oilfield runs on diesel, and it's pretty much free (company pays for it). That's also why most oilfield employees run diesel trucks. The fuel is free if no one cares that they fill up their personal vehicles.
No personal rigs up on the Slope, but you're pretty much right. Up until recently everything ran on diesel in most every oil patch. Mainly due to the explosion hazard of gasoline.
I wa siping greenfield construction, not plant work, and actually ran mostly gassers 2 winters ago. For what we use the vehicles for, gas is the best option, like you guys stated.
My work was in a land locked area, no 12 month roads. Air or ice road access only. When I had the gassers, we only worked during ice road season, so I set up a 10kgal gas tank in the fuel farm.
Last year, we started back up in the fall once everything froze up enough to drive on the fresh gravel roads built the previous winter. (No gravel the year before, all ice pads and ice bridges for access.)
Beings, we didn't have ice roads, we were fueling off of the oil company's summer diesel reserves and they don't store large quantities of gas in the roadless camps and processing facilities.
Of note, the oil companies don't make their own fuel up on the N Slope like they used to. EPA and the Army Corps killed that. Every drop of diesel gets trucked the 900 whatever miles up from Anchorage. Pipeline it down and truck it back up. Seems stupid, but there are so many regs driving the cost of doing business through the roof, this is just a minor cost.
The oil companies are coming around to using gas pickups up there now mainly because of the sh!t show that ensued with 2008 emissions. A lot of the lease trucks and company trucks that run on the road system are now gassers up there.
