40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Prudhoe Bay’s legacy

“... if we can live and work here, in these conditions, we can go to Mars.” —Comment by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, after a tour of Prudhoe Bay in mid-winter

Frank E. Baker

For Petroleum News

For the U.S. news media, Prudhoe Bay startup in the summer of 1977 was more of a pipeline story rather than an oil field story. How would the new, $8 billion pipeline perform on its trial run? When would the oil front reach Valdez? The wager captured everyone’s imagination. The feat of barging Prudhoe Bay oil field facilities thousands of miles from the U.S. West Coast to the Arctic Ocean; the massive effort of constructing the field’s power station and other oil field installations in a hostile, Arctic environment; the daunting task of drilling oil wells in sub-zero weather conditions through 2,000 feet of permafrost and another 6,000 feet to tap into Prudhoe’s rich oil reservoir; the multibillion-dollar investments needed to produce that first barrel of oil, were for the most part, unheralded.

In its remote spot near the top of the world, Prudhoe Bay has been generally overlooked by most of the nation, taken for granted by the general public. But over the past 30 years, the field has told its own story — in billions of dollars of taxes and royalties to the State of Alaska; billions of dollars of investments within the state; an Alaska Permanent Fund savings account that has grown to more than $38 billion; more than 56,000 Alaska jobs, not counting construction of the Alaska pipeline; and the emergence of many local companies that support the oil and gas industry.

The industry’s many contributions also include infrastructure and improvements to facilities across the state that include schools, hospitals, roads, airports, docks, shopping centers — improvements that have vastly enhanced the quality of life for generations of Alaskans; and energy — about 15 billion barrels of oil sent to market in the U.S., accounting for an average 15-20 percent of the nation’s production for three decades.

But over the past 30 years, Prudhoe Bay has yielded more than oil, revenue and jobs. It has been a proving ground for oil field technology and Arctic engineering.

It has been a one-of-a-kind, outdoor laboratory for environmental science. It has helped advance knowledge of the region’s earliest aboriginal inhabitants.

Because of Prudhoe Bay, there are now 24 separate oil fields on the North Slope — five of which are among the nation’s top 10 largest producing fields.

And despite the natural oil production decline of the big fields, the North Slope is today producing about 700,000 barrels of oil per day — a significant contribution to America’s energy production.

Because of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska is poised to reap a new Arctic bounty — the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas lying beneath the surface. It is natural gas needed by an energy-hungry America.

A few years after his moon landing on Apollo 17, former NASA astronaut and New Mexico Senator Harrison Schmitt visited Prudhoe Bay. After being toured around the area in the depths of winter, when chill factors can reach minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit and colder, he commented: “If we can live and work here, in these conditions, we can go to Mars.”

He got it right. In one sentence he revealed a profound understanding of Prudhoe Bay’s underlying importance to Alaska, the nation and the world.

Prudhoe Bay has been a testament to what human beings can do when they set their minds to it.

A lifetime Alaska resident, Frank Baker retired from BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. in March 2007 with 29 years service. He has been writing and reporting for the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years.