March 26, 2009
All, News of today:
Tricon bit for HQ pipes
- We are still waiting for information from Kinross, whether they have a tricon for us that could be flown to Lake E.
- One tricon was purchased in Magadan this morning by NEISRI: It made it on today´s flight to Bilibino today and is ready to be picked up there (by helicopter or vehicle).
Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA)
- We are working on delivery by Kinross via None, Alaska, to Anadyr (with custom clearance) and further by helicopter to Lake E. This currently seems to be become difficult, time-consuming and expensive but is kept an option.
- More realistic at present is the transport of the BHA bits by Chris to Moscow on Fr., arriving Sat. 10:10 am in Moscow. The bit would be further shipped to Magadan with Pavel´s son by plane leaving Sat 17:25. They could then make it on a flight from Magadan to Bilibino scheduled for Monday.
- If one of these options fail (e.g. at Moscow customs) we still have the option of Jerry and Joe from DOSECC delivering the bits as personal luggage on their flights to Pevek.
Next drilling steps
- Assuming the BHA bits make it to Bilibino by Monday we would try to pick them up by helicopter on Tuesday and proceed with lake sediment coring from 100 m downwards (following reaming down to that depth without coring).
- In case of delay of the BHA bits we plan to deliver the tricon from Bilibino or Pevek by helicopter on Monday or Tuesday and conduct downhole logging prior to lake sediment coring. It is not finally decided but the logging may first be restricted to the uppermost 100 m. This would allow us to get the data for the sediments already cored and check on the quality of the hole (the third one from the same location through one and the same ice hole). If the hole is good (not influenced by earlier coring), we may not want to disturb deeper sediments but rather keep them for coring. If the hole is bad, we may go deeper to undisturbed sediments but should keep sufficient time to move the platform (which will take some time).
Cheers for now, Martin
