Oil Patch Insider: OGJ: North Slope black gold rush; BP’s Dudley upbeat on o&g; See record-breaking polar flight video
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Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Oil & Gas Journal has joined national and international news sources in touting the revival of Alaska North Slope exploration, development and production.
Although in her Oct. 28 article, statistics editor Laura Bell gives a misleading number for monthly oil production - 380,000 barrels per day in July when all other 2018 months, including September, have been in the 475,000 to 540,000 bpd range, she was correct in saying the Slope was once a major source of oil production and reserves in the U.S.
But, as she points out, the Slope’s glory days are coming back: “IHS Markit recently forecast that the ANS could theoretically become a main source of US production in the next 8 years with an expected growth of nearly 40 percent.”
Quoting IHS, she said the basin is an “arrested, late-emerging phase ‘super basin’ rather than a mature basin,” noting the Slope’s recoverable reserves improved six-fold in 2017 from the overlooked Nanushuk and Torok formation discoveries (by Armstrong/Repsol to be developed by Oil Search; ConocoPhillips; Caelus).
Quoting IHS, she wrote, “For onshore light-oil opportunities in a stable country with positive investment outlooks, the ANS provides a viable alternative to the competitive Lower 48 unconventional basins, where acreage prices are an order of magnitude greater and have transportation and raw material constraints, even if they are temporary.”
“A black gold rush could inevitably occur with the recent super basin classification,” Bell wrote, “making Alaska more than ready with its established infrastructure and skilled workers prepared.”
- KAY CASHMAN
BP’s top exec sees good times ahead for o&g Following are observations and quotes from press outlets from BP chief executive Bob Dudley’s presentation at the Oil & Money conference in London Oct.9:
*BP is planning its investments at $60-$65 a barrel oil, increasing it from $50-$55 last year, and although Dudley doesn’t expect sustained prices of $85, he said prices are unlikely to plummet again.
*Each of BP’s projects will make money at less than $40 oil by 2021.
*“Renewables are growing at a remarkable rate,” and could supply about a third of energy needs by around 2040. “But we (oil and gas producers) still need to meet the remaining two-thirds of demand,” Dudley said.
- KAY CASHMAN
Gulfstream releases video of polar flight In May the Gulfstream G650ER set a speed record over the North Pole, linking the Atlantic and Pacific, via White Plains, New York to Shanghai.
Gulfstream Aerospace released a video in the second week of October on Facebook, Twitter and other sites of the record-breaking 6,870-nautical-mile polar flight.
The jet flew at an average speed of Mach 0.86, taking just 13 hours and 40 minutes to reach its destination.
- KAY CASHMAN
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