February ANS crude oil production down 5%

Prudhoe Bay leads drop at 6.7%, down some 22,000 barrels per day from January; Slope wide, drop is almost 28,000 barrels

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 533,298 barrels per day in February, down 4.93 percent, 27,666 bpd, from a January average of 560,964 bpd.

The largest month-over-month drop, 6.69 percent, was at the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Prudhoe Bay field, which averaged 305,679 bpd in February, down 21,914 bpd from a January average of 327,593 bpd. Prudhoe production, which includes satellite production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris, as well as the BP-operated Northstar and Milne Point fields, ranged from a high of 327,521 barrels Feb. 14 to a low of 254,358 on Feb. 27 — and was below 300,000 bpd for 10 consecutive days beginning Feb. 15.

BP Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience told Petroleum News in a March 3 email that “some planned maintenance at a facility was complicated by the extended period of extreme arctic weather (minus 40 below zero).” Patience noted that production varies day to day and said “on an annual average daily basis this will not have significant impact.”

February data is from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division which reports North Slope oil production consolidated by major production centers and provides daily production and monthly averages. More detailed data, including Cook Inlet and individual North Slope fields and pools, is reported by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on a month-delay basis. January data was not available from the commission when this story was written and will be reported when it becomes available.

February production from the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 133,377 bpd in February, down 3.42 percent, 4,723 bpd, from a January average of 138,100 bpd. Kuparuk production includes satellite production from Meltwater, Northeast West Sak, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak, and from the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Pioneer Natural Resources-operated Oooguruk field.

Production at the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field in the Colville River unit averaged 55,213 bpd in February, down 1.54 percent, 866 barrels, from a January average of 56,079 bpd. Alpine includes production from three Colville River unit satellites: Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.

Production from BP-operated Lisburne, which includes Point McIntyre, Niakuk and Raven, averaged 28,243 bpd in February, up 0.41 percent from a January average of 28,127 bpd.

February production from Endicott, also operated by BP, averaged 10,786 bpd, down 2.52 percent from a January average of 11,065 bpd. Endicott includes production from the Savant Alaska-operated Badami field.

ANS crude oil production peaked in 1988 at 2.1 million bpd.