| Summary: | This thesis was done in order to find feasible solutions for logistics-and regulations related challenges when conducting offshore exploration drilling operations in the Canadian Beaufort Sea on exploration licenses (EL's) 451 and 453. Most of the challenges-, and solutions related to operating on these locations are generic for other similar areas in the arctic seas. It is estimated that a great majority of worlds undiscovered petroleum resources are located in the arctic areas, which are largely covered by seas. Only a handful of arctic offshore exploration drilling projects have been carried out in similar conditions as described in this thesis, and information gained from the exploration project will be of great value when planning further offshore developments in arctic areas. Solutions used in the exploration campaign described, must be very flexible because the EL's 451 and 453 are ca. 1oo-2ookm offshore and water depth in the area varies from some tens of meters to ca. 200m. The coastline of the Canadian Beaufort Sea is extremely far away from any larger settlements and has very poor logistics infrastructure, -harsh arctic climate and -heavy sea ice conditions. Several solutions for overcoming the challenges arising from the local conditions are suggested in this thesis. Strict Canadian environmental-and offshore oil-and gas regulations are assessed in the thesis and proposed solutions for applying these regulations are brought up. Main findings of this thesis are that strict interpretation of rules and best industry practices are to be followed when operating in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, in order to ensure safety of the operations as well as to avoid conflict with any of the stakeholders or interest groups. This may be achieved by gathering knowledge from operations carried out in the past with similarities to this, negotiating with regulatory bodies, sharing information with other operators and using other, less conventional information sources as non-governmental organisations such as environmental ...
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