Alaska North Slope crude oil production plunged in mid-July due to a planned maintenance shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, hitting 209,193 barrels per day July 16, the day the shutdown began, and 194,189 bpd on July 17, the day the 36-hour shutdown ended.
Proration around that shutdown, combined with ongoing scheduled maintenance at the Lisburne field and the beginning of work at Flow Station 3 on the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay, resulted in an average of 462,407 bpd from the North Slope in July, down 18.9 percent from an average of 570,173 bpd in June.
The largest drops in production were at Prudhoe Bay, which averaged 204,492 bpd in July, down 96,648 bpd from a June average of 301,140 bpd (a 32 percent decline) and at Lisburne, at 8,683 bpd down 48 percent from a June average of 16,718 bpd, a drop of 8,035 bpd.
The largest month-to-month increase in production, 6,489 bpd in July compared to 908 bpd in June, was at the BP-operated Endicott field, which was down for maintenance all of June; the only crude oil coming through the Endicott pipeline in June was from Badami.
The only other North Slope field to have a July-over-June production increase was the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field, which averaged 137,027 bpd in July, up 0.7 percent from a June average of 136,131 bpd.
Production from the BP-operated Milne Point field averaged 20,599 bpd in July, down 10.3 percent from a June average of 22,968 bpd.
The ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 72,338 bpd in July, down 8.1 percent from a June average of 78,698 bpd. The BP-operated Northstar field averaged 12,779 bpd in July, down 6.1 percent from a June average of 13,610 bpd.
Cook Inlet production averaged 10,662 bpd in July, down 4.2 percent from a June average of 11,125 bpd.
See story in Aug. 7 issue, available online at 11 a.m., Friday, Aug. 5, at www.PetroleumNews.com
