|
May ANS production up 3% from April
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
There are two items of note in the May Alaska North Slope crude oil production figures: Prudhoe Bay was back in full operation by the end of the month and Alpine set a new production record.
ANS production averaged 780,369 barrels per day in May, up 3 percent from an April average of 757,181 bpd.
The only incident affecting production noted by the Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division for the month was the May 21-May 25 shutdown at Gathering Center 2 following discovery of a leak in a water pipeline at the facility. That shutdown reduced Prudhoe Bay production by some 100,000 bpd (see story in June 3 issue of Petroleum News).
BP-operated Prudhoe Bay averaged 331,021 bpd in May, up 4.5 percent from an April average of 316,846 bpd. There was also a GC-2 shutdown April 24 following an accident between a side-boom crane and an electric power line; the facility came back online April 29. Because of the two GC-2 incidents, Prudhoe production was down in both April and May compared to March, when production averaged 343,060 bpd. Prudhoe Bay production includes satellite production from Midnight Sun, Aurora, Polaris, Borealis and Orion.
Greater Prudhoe Bay production — which includes Lisburne and some 33,000 bpd of Prudhoe Bay Flow Station 2 crude being shipped through Endicott — averaged 384,291 bpd for May, up 3.9 percent from an April average of 369,995 bpd.
Lisburne averaged 20,270 bpd in May, up 0.6 percent from an April average of 20,149 bpd.
Alpine high of more than 142,000 bpd The ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Alpine field on the west side of the North Slope averaged 138,984 bpd in May, a new monthly high, up 7.2 percent from an April average of 129,682 bpd. Alpine’s two satellites, Fiord and Nanuq, came online last year, Fiord in August and Nanuq in late November. Alpine’s high-production day for the month was on May 10 at 142,523 bpd.
Alpine was discovered in 1994 by ConocoPhillips Alaska predecessor ARCO Alaska and its partners Anadarko Petroleum and Union Texas Petroleum (Union Texas was acquired by ARCO in 1998). Production began in 2000.
Initial production was expected to be 80,000 bpd but production exceeded expectations. Facilities upgrading began with operational tweaking and debottlenecking in 2001-02, work that included upgrading transfer pumps at Kuparuk, where Alpine buys seawater for injection. This work increased facilities handling capacity to 105,000 bpd.
Facilities expansions done in 2004 and 2005 increased production capacity to 140,000 bpd by increasing water handling capacity to 100,000 bpd, increasing seawater injection to more than 130,000 bpd and adding a small increase in gas handling capacity.
ConocoPhillips told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2006 that based on current Alpine field production and update projections for production from Fiord, Nanuq and a projected West Alpine development (not yet permitted) that “the Alpine area’s oil production is expected to be limited by the processing facility’s gas handing capacity for the next few years.” Wells with the highest gas-oil-ratios “will likely be shut in during much of the year.”
Milne up 18.7 percent Alpine’s single-day peak production in May was more than the single-day lows at the North Slope’s second largest field, the ConocoPhillips-operated Kuparuk River field, which produced 141,233 bpd on May 25 and 139,830 bpd on May 26.
Kuparuk production for the month averaged 159,554 bpd, down 2.2 percent from an April average of 163,150 bpd. Kuparuk production includes satellite production from West Sak, Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and Palm.
Production from BP’s Milne Point field averaged 38,012 bpd in May, up 18.7 percent from an April average of 32,023 bpd. Milne Point production includes Schrader Bluff production.
The BP-operated Northstar field averaged 43,587 bpd in May, down 4.5 percent from an April average of 45,661 bpd.
The BP-operated Endicott field (whose current volumes include some 33,000 bpd of Flow Station 2 crude from Prudhoe Bay) averaged 48,941 bpd in May, down 1.5 percent from an April average of 49,670.
The temperature averaged 22.6 degrees F at Pump Station 1, compared to a five-year average for May of 26.6 degrees F.
Cook Inlet production averaged 15,931 bpd in May, up 2.5 percent from an April average of 15,550 bpd.
|
