Doyon 26, known as the Beast, tipped over and caught fire later Friday afternoon as it was being moved on Alaska’s North Slope. Sources say the incident occurred near Alpine, located about 8 miles north of the village of Nuiqsut.

Doyon 26, which weighs nearly 10 million pounds, is the largest mobile land drilling rig in North America. 

The rig is currently being operated on behalf of ConocoPhillips. ConocoPhillips sent a statement about the incident to all legislators and then to the media. In the statement they say there were no serious injuries. 

At approximately 4:45 pm today, an incident involving Doyon 26 occurred while traveling on an ice road (was corrected to say gravel road) on the North Slope of Alaska, while operating on behalf of ConocoPhillips. A fire occurred and is currently contained and controlled. All personnel have been accounted for and there are no serious injuries. There was no damage to local community infrastructure and no impact to pipelines or fuel transportation. Emergency response personnel remain on site. We will provide additional details as they are available.

Video obtained by the Landmine shows the rig tipping over. The derrick can be seen basically disintegrating as it hits the ground.  

A 2022 Anchorage Daily News article said the rig “set a long-distance drilling record in Alaska, and unlocked oil from a new section of the western North Slope oil fields.”

Several people with North Slope experience have said the rig likely tipped due to being moved in warm 30 degree weather, which would have caused the road to be softer. Once it went off the shoulder on the soft ground, tipping over was probably inevitable. 

It’s unclear what kind of impact this will have on the ongoing winter drilling season, but there will be an impact as the rig was being moved to go drill.

This is a developing story.