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August ANS production up marginally With Northstar back online, end of August sees all North Slope fields in production, with some daily peaks above 650,000 bpd Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Alaska North Slope production averaged 540,947 barrels per day of crude oil in August, up marginally (0.1 percent) from a July average of 540,368 bpd.
By month end, with Northstar back online, Alaska Department of Revenue data show all North Slope fields in production.
In June and July, first Lisburne and then Northstar were down for extensive periods for maintenance.
In May there were reductions in production across most North Slope fields due to an unplanned three-day shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline caused by an overflow of oil into a liner-protected area at a pump station. Production proration also occurred in mid-June and at the end of July in conjunction with planned pipeline maintenance shutdowns of less than a day and a half each month; field maintenance was scheduled around those planned pipeline shutdowns.
The second of the two planned maintenance shutdowns ended Aug. 1, and production ramped up, particularly at Prudhoe Bay, which had a low for the month of 83,686 barrels Aug. 1, had gradually increasing production through the first three weeks of August and produced at levels above 320,000 bpd for the remainder of the month.
Largest change at Lisburne The BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.-operated Lisburne field had the largest percentage increase from July to August, up 191.6 percent. Lisburne production averaged 18,699 bpd in August, up from a daily average of 6,412 bpd in July, but Lisburne was only in production July 18-31, whereas the field was in production every day in August. Lisburne production includes Point McIntyre and Niakuk.
The only other field with increased month-over-month production was BP’s Milne Point field, which averaged 27,931 bpd in August, up 6 percent from a July average of 26,340 bpd.
The largest month-over-month production decline, 55 percent, was at the BP-operated Northstar field, which averaged 6,137 bpd in August compared to 13,635 bpd in August. As with Lisburne, the difference is based on days of production. Northstar produced only from the Aug. 21 through 31, compared to the previous month when the field was in production from July 1 through July 25.
The BP-operated Endicott field averaged 12,314 bpd in August, down 8.1 percent from a July average of 13,399 bpd.
The ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 133,527 bpd in August, down 2.7 percent from a July average of 137,221 bpd. Kuparuk includes satellite production from Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and West Sak, as well as production from the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field. Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission production figures, which break out volumes by field, are not yet available for August, but in July Oooguruk averaged 11,720 bpd, some 8.4 percent of combined Kuparuk and Oooguruk production for that month.
Production at the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 89,810 bpd in August, down 0.8 percent from a July average of 90,522. Alpine includes satellite production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.
Production from the BP-operated Prudhoe Bay field averaged 252,529 bpd in August, down 0.1 percent from a July average of 252,809. Prudhoe, which accounted for 46 percent of Alaska production in August, includes satellite production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris.
Cook Inlet down 7 percent The average temperature at Pump Station 1 on the North Slope was 46 degrees Fahrenheit in August, down from an average of 60.4 F in July.
Cook Inlet production averaged 9,305 bpd in August, down 7.34 percent from a July average of 10,042 bpd.
ANS crude oil production peaked in 1988 at 2.1 million bpd; Cook Inlet crude oil production peaked in 1970 at more than 227,000 bpd.
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