Tioga Pipeline Tour

Email:  Sue@PrintsPublishing.com

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It was a great tour.  Thanks, Chris.

Chris Norgaard gave us a tour of Almer’s Construction in Tioga, including the office and construction yard, and a pipeline project near Lake Sakakawea.

As Project Manager for Almer’s, Chris bids pipeline jobs, determines the underground pipeline route, inspects pipeline construction, and visits the sites to review progress and answer questions.  Hi, Jenny.  Hi, Gunnar.

Hi, Sweet Adeline.

Can you see that we had just made a stop at the Red Moose Coffee Hus?  I always get a slushie.

Also onsite near Chris’ office, welders are welding and constructing the pipe manifolds to meet specifications for installation out in the field.  These fabrications are risers which bring the pipe from underground to above ground.

The construction yard at Almer’s has all kinds of equipment on site.

Chris’ designed this new logo for the company.

Then we were given a tour out in the field, less than a half hour from downtown Tioga.  We saw three working sites (pads) near Lake Sakakawea where access roads had been constructed and the site cleared, graded, and readied for equipment.  Geologists, maps, and research had determined the presence of oil in that area. 

An oil company purchased leases from property owners that provided their right to drill for oil and gas.   Oil rigs were then erected and holes were drilled into the earth and designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface.  Almer’s Construction got the bid to construct and bore an underground pipeline from a site nearest the lake (a collection site with storage tanks) to a distant pad located up a steep 200-foot cliff.

Another company has rolls of water line ready to roll out above ground.  It’s used to move water to the well pad for fracking operations.

This is some of the pipeline that Almer’s used on a project this spring.

Chris explained that this is a site waiting to get fracked.

Here the guys are welding up pipe line.

Pulling pipe into a borehole, under a road.

This is welded up pipe before it goes into the ground.

The tall crane is used for fracking on that site, not part of Almer’s job.

Finding, pumping, and moving oil and gas takes a lot of time and money .  An oil well can produce oil for up to 30 years, after which the land is then returned to the property owner.  Millions of dollars are spent leasing the oil rights, drilling oil wells, capturing the oil, and transporting the oil.  More than one well is often drilled on leased land in order to maximize capture of oil, which is why we often see more than one oil rig in an area.

The view from the 200+ foot cliff is spectacular.  That’s the giant Lake Sakakawea in the background, where Chris and Jenny keep their fast flying pontoon for fishing, swimming, skiing, and entertaining parents.  You can see the collection pad in the far distance, nearest the lake, with the three oil rigs and storage tanks. 

                 The largest pad in the middle is full of trucks and tanks.  At the long narrow equipment site at the foot of the hill, Almer’s is directionally boring a pipe to the top of the cliff, to collect oil from the pumps at the top of the cliff.

This is a wider panoramic view from where we’re standing at the top of the cliff.  What is amazing is that there is no open excavation or digging because it’s so steep.  That’s why they’re directionally boring totally underground with no open cut ting.  No equipment could navigate the cliff.

That’s Allan on the left, then Chris, our daughter Jenny, and their kids Gunnar and Addie. 

It looks like Grandma Sue is hanging onto Addie and Gunnar for dear life, so I didn’t stumble over the cliff.