Where am I!!

Here is what Wikipedia says about Endicott Island

Endicott Island is a 45-acre (0.18 km²) artificial island located in the Beaufort Sea in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located 2.5 miles (4 km) offshore, 15 miles (24 km) from Prudhoe Bay, it was built in 1987 and is used by BP and ExxonMobil for petroleum production.

I am actually on a satellite island about three miles from Endicott. Liberty Island is six miles offshore. The Beaufort Sea is starting to freeze around us and water can now only be seen in one direction. The drill rig is designed to go down 4500 ft and then start turning horizontal approx. 3 degrees every 100 ft . Once it turns horizontal it can drill out 50,000 ft to the oil. This rigs is designed to move across the land and will eventually be used to drill back under the tundra and extract oil below the land reducing its environmental impact. This is the start of the Alaskan Pipeline. The terminus is in Valdez, AK which I had the opportunity to visit several years back.

They brought me up here on short notice to have me test protective relays installed in the switchgear here. Now that I am here they have let me know that it may be several more days before they have the settings for these relays. So we sit and wait.