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ANS production back up from September
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Alaska North Slope production averaged 686,126 barrels per day in October, an increase of 1.4 percent from a September average of 676,664 bpd, according to data from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division.
The nudge up in volume comes primarily from two BP Exploration Alaska-operated fields.
The offshore Northstar field, which was down entirely during part of September and producing at a lowered volume for much of the rest of that month, returned to normal production levels early in October following the completion of maintenance work, averaging 21,517 bpd in October, up 127 percent from a September average of 9,474 bpd.
The Lisburne field also had some days of reduced production in September, but with steady production levels in October Lisburne production was up 17 percent month-over-month, averaging 34,046 bpd in October compared to 29,084 bpd in September.
Other fields with month-over-month increases included BP’s Milne Point field, up 2 percent at 29,323 bpd, compared to 28,739 bpd in September, and the BP-operated Prudhoe Bay field, which averaged 347,155 bpd in October, up 0.7 percent from a September average of 344,805 bpd.
Lisburne production includes Point McIntyre and Niakuk; Milne Point includes Sag River and Schrader Bluff production; and Prudhoe Bay includes satellite production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris.
Three fields with lower production Three fields had month-over-month production declines.
The BP-operated Endicott field averaged 13,809 bpd in October, down 1.3 percent from a September average of 13,988 bpd. Endicott includes Sag Delta and Eider production.
The ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 145,254 bpd in October, down 3.45 percent from a September average of 150,446 bpd. Kuparuk includes production from Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and West Sak, as well as production from the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.
The most recent production data available for Oooguruk, from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, shows August production from the field of 268,288 barrels, an average of 8,654 bpd.
The ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 95,022 bpd in October, down 5.1 percent from a September average of 100,128 bpd. Alpine includes production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.
Some proration Inventories at the Valdez Marine Terminal reached more than 6 million barrels at the end of October. The inventory level during September averaged 2.7 million barrels, but was rising at the end of the month. In October the average inventory level was 4.6 million barrels and reached more than 6.2 million barrels on two days at the end of October.
North Slope production dropped at the end of October from more than 700,000 bpd to fewer than 600,000 bpd for four days, before rising above 750,000 Oct. 31, the same day inventory at Valdez dropped below the 5 million-barrel level for the first time in a week.
The inventory level in early November had dropped to 4 million barrels.
Matt Carle, spokesman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Valdez terminal, told Petroleum News Nov. 5 that North Slope production was prorated to about 80 percent due to high inventory for about three days in the latter part of October. Crude oil tanker schedules are often impacted by inclement weather in the Gulf of Alaska during the winter months, he said.
The temperature at Pump Station No. 1 on the North Slope averaged 29.8 degrees F in October, down from an average of 36.8 F in September.
ANS crude oil production peaked in 1988 at some 2 million bpd.
Cook Inlet down Cook Inlet production was down about 1 percent, averaging some 8,600 bpd in October compared to a September average of 8,700 bpd. The September figure is a revision from that reported by Revenue in early September.
Cook Inlet production dropped steeply following the April shutdown of the Drift River terminal and all of Chevron’s oil production platforms on the west side of Cook Inlet due to volcanic activity from Mount Redoubt.
The eight Chevron oil platforms resumed production in August, following the reopening of the Drift River terminal, which restarted operations in early August after the volcanic eruptions subsided.
The Drift River tanks are now being bypassed and oil is delivered to tankers at the Christy Lee platform offshore Drift River from storage tanks at Chevron’s oil production facilities at Granite Point and Trading Bay through the Cook Inlet pipeline.
Chevron has the largest volume of production in Cook Inlet.
Chevron spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz told Petroleum News Nov. 3 that there was only about half a month of offshore production in August, the month the platforms came back on production, with a daily production average of some 2,222 bpd (these numbers exclude Chevron production from the Swanson River field on the Kenai Peninsula); the September average for offshore was 5,371 bpd and the October average was 5,758 bpd.
Cook Inlet crude oil production peaked in 1970 at more than 227,000 bpd.
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