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November 2008

Vol. 13, No. 46 Week of November 16, 2008

40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Atlantic Refining brought Mangus back

Company invested in North Slope exploration from the Foothills to the Arctic coast, while others scoffed at area’s oil potential

Petroleum News

In 1963, Atlantic Refining Co. began to supplement what was known about the geology of the North Slope from work done years earlier by the U.S. Geological Survey when the federal government explored the National Petroleum Reserve–4.

Marvin Mangus, a former USGS geologist, returned to his former haunts as chief geologist for Atlantic Refining in charge of Alaska exploration.

But this time instead of a boat, Mangus conducted his field surveys with the aid of his fixed-wing and helicopter air support.

Geologists Don Jessup and Louis Cramer along with Bob Tabbert from the Geosciences group in Dallas assisted Mangus during that first summer. Elder Lebert was Mangus’ faithful cook and camp hand for all the years he worked for Atlantic and ARCO.

In 1964, Gerald “Jake” Thomas served as Mangus’ field assistant and in 1965, it was William C. Penttila and Richard Moore.

Post-merger collaboration

After the merger with Richfield, Gil Mull worked with Mangus, as did Hank Repp of Humble in 1966.

“In 1964, (we) shot our first line across the Prudhoe structure,” Mangus said. “Lonnie Brantly and Jack Carlisle were making maps as the data arrived from the field crew.”

Richfield was also shooting the area and had its own independent interpretation on which Prudhoe Bay leases would actually be acquired.

Concurrently, Larry Pipes on Atlantic Refining’s Dallas staff was also making an interpretation. Atlantic had as partners for some of the geophysical work Pan American and Sun Oil, but the two companies lost interest and did not participate in bidding for leases at Sale 14 in July 1965 when the leases that Richfield and Humble ultimately became part of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, Mangus said.

If only he could eat his words

“I remember one day at lunch at the ‘Bull’ (community) table at the Petroleum Club,” Mangus said. “A contemporary geologist with Union was deriding Atlantic Refining for exploring on the North Slope. He said with great sarcasm, ‘Why, you would have to find 500 million or 600 million barrels of oil.’ His implication was that it would be impossible to find a field that large. How wrong he was about that.”

On the other hand, statistics were on his side, Mangus observed. “With what was known and given the industry history and experience at that moment, it was very unlikely we would find something large enough to be commercial,” he added.






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