June ANS production down 7% from May
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Cook Inlet production for May up 5.4% from April, led by 158% increase at Hilcorp’s Trading Bay, 48% at Hilcorp’s Beaver Creek
By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
Alaska North Slope crude oil production dropped below 500,000 barrels per day in June, averaging 497,582 bpd, down 6.95 percent, from a May average of 534,741 bpd, while much smaller Cook Inlet production volumes saw a 5.4 percent increase to 13,571 bpd in May over April.
North Slope volumes are from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division, which reports oil production consolidated by major production centers and provides daily production and monthly averages for the most recent month. More detailed data, including Cook Inlet and individual North Slope fields and pools, is as reported by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on a month-delay basis.
The largest North Slope drop was at the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Prudhoe Bay field, which averaged 275,782 bpd in June, down 9.18 percent, 27,864 bpd, from a May average of 303,646 bpd. Prudhoe production includes satellite production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris, as well as production from the Northstar and Milne Point fields.
Production at Prudhoe began and ended the month at production levels above 300,000 bpd, dropping to 139,916 bpd June 8, coinciding with an 18-hour scheduled shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. for testing of mainline valves at various locations along the line.
That shutdown was part of Alyeska’s scheduled summer maintenance shutdowns, which began with a four-hour shutdown May 10. A six-hour shutdown originally scheduled for June 30 to install temporary bypass piping around Pump Station 10 has been rescheduled for July 18. That will be followed by a six-hour shutdown when the Pump Station 10 bypass is removed and normal flow restored at that station. There is also an 18-hour shutdown scheduled for Aug. 9 to text mainline valves at various locations along the line. Field maintenance scheduled around Alyeska North Slope operators typically schedule summer maintenance around Alyeska’s schedule. BP has turnarounds scheduled this summer at Flow Station 2 and Gathering Center 3; ConocoPhillips Alaska, the Kuparuk River field operator, has maintenance scheduled at Central Processing Facility 3 and Central Processing Facility 1. ConocoPhillips is also the Alpine field operator; maintenance is scheduled there in August.
Production from the ConocoPhillips-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 119,645 bpd in June, down 6 percent from a May average of 127,282 bpd. Kuparuk production includes satellite production from Meltwater, Tabasco and Tarn, as well as production from the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and from the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field. As at Prudhoe, Kuparuk production dropped sharply on June 8, from volumes above 120,000 bpd to 35,471 bpd.
AOGCC figures for May show Nikaitchuq averaging 11,926 bpd, up 6.9 percent from an April average of 11,153 bpd. Oooguruk averaged 8,255 bpd in May, up 37.5 percent from an April average of 6,002 bpd.
The BP-operated Lisburne field (part of Greater Prudhoe Bay) averaged 27,386 bpd in June, down 3.8 percent from a May average of 28,465 bpd. Lisburne includes Niakuk and Point McIntyre production.
The ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 63,427 bpd in June, down 2.67 percent from a May average of 65,169 bpd. Alpine includes satellite production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik, with the main Alpine accumulation accounting for 64.2 percent of May production followed by Fiord at 31.4 percent.
The BP-operated Endicott field averaged 11,342 bpd in June, up 11.4 percent from a May average of 10,179 bpd. Endicott includes production from the Savant Alaska-operated Badami field, which AOGCC data show averaged 1,220 bpd in May, down marginally from 1,230 bpd in April. Increases in Cook Inlet At 13,571 bpd, Cook Inlet production was up 5.36 percent in May from an April average of 12,881 bpd.
While most Cook Inlet fields had a month-over-month decline in production, the Hilcorp Alaska-operated Trading Bay field averaged 1,579 bpd in May, a 158 percent increase over the 611 bpd the field produced in April.
In a June 5 presentation to Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan’s Energy Task Force, Hilcorp Alaska’s vice president for exploration and production, John Barnes, illustrated an overall 36 percent increase in oil production at Hilcorp-operated Cook Inlet fields, January through May, with the largest increase at Swanson River, 412 percent, followed by Trading Bay at 157 percent.
There have recently been four Cook Inlet fields producing more than 1,000 bpd — with the increase at Trading Bay that number has grown to five, four operated by Hilcorp (Granite Point (2,254 bpd in May), McArthur River (4,093 bpd), Swanson River (2,383 bpd) and Trading Bay) and one, Middle Ground Shoal, operated by ExxonMobil-subsidiary XTO (2,182 bpd).
The Hilcorp-operated Beaver Creek field had a 48.4 percent production increase, to 151 bpd in May from 101 bpd in April.
All other Cook Inlet fields saw production declines ranging from 6.1 percent (Cook Inlet Energy’s Redoubt Shoal field and Hilcorp’s Swanson River) to 0.4 percent at Hilcorp’s McArthur River field.
ANS crude oil production peaked in 1988 at 2.1 million bpd; Cook Inlet crude oil production peaked in 1970 at more than 227,000 bpd.
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