The recent increase in the number of the projects and activities on the North Slope of Alaska has become challenging, leading to numerous scheduling conflicts for equipment and resources. This project explains steps that can be taken to improve resource allocation and guidelines for scheduling oil drill rig work activities for oil and gas projects on Alaska’s North Slope. The project includes insights from two years of research to improve the oil drill rig scheduling process, a survey of subject matter experts involved in the oil drill rig scheduling process, research of similar Arctic environment projects, and the researchers professional experience identifying and mitigating risks and schedule conflicts in the mid-term planning phase of oil and gas projects. Implementing the proposed guidelines has improved the oil drill rig scheduling process, roles and responsibilities are more clearly defined, communication among groups has been improved and support groups have adequate time to complete their work. Results include reduction of oil drill rig move downtime and a reduction in the time to produce oil after the oil drill rig leaves the well site.

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE