NEWS BULLETIN

January 07, 2003 --- Vol. 9, No. 1January 2003

Marathon to expand pad at Kenai gas field for four new wells

Marathon Oil Co. has applied to expand an existing pad, Kenai gas field pad 41-7, to support four additional gas wells. Marathon told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that while the Kenai gas field has been producing gas since 1961, and is a mature field, "Marathon is still identifying promising pay intervals within the structure that have not been produced previously." The company said it believed that remaining reserves warrant capital investment to maintain production from the field.

The Corps said in a public notice published today that approximately 49,300 cubic yards of clean gravel will be discharged into 3.8 acres of wetlands to support four natural gas wells including well cellars, production buildings, a compressor building and additional wastewater storage capacity, a snow storage area, parking, new vehicle travel patterns, a switch gear building for electrical service, buried utility lines, flow lines from each well head to production building(s), meters and possibly dehydration equipment.

Additional production wells will be at the north end of the pad and expansion on the northwest side would be used for installation of production facilities. Expansion to the southwest and south would accommodate re-routing vehicle traffic away from the core areas of the pad and to the south of the existing structures, and also allow for additional production facilities.

Pad 41-7 is in sections 6 and 7 of township 4 north, range 11 west, Seward Meridian.

December crude oil production up 12 percent from November

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 1,033,814 barrels a day in December, up 12.3 percent from a November average of 920,591 bpd. November production took a hit early in the month when the pipeline was shut down for several days to assess and repair damage from the Nov. 3 earthquake. It was also colder in December, which improves production, averaging -1.8 degrees Fahrenheit at Pump Station 1, compared to 11 degrees F for November. Both temperatures were higher than three-year averages of 3 degrees F for November and -7.9 degrees F for December.

Lisburne had the largest percentage production increase, averaging 68,835 bpd in December, up 16.32 percent from 59,177 bpd in November.

Endicott averaged 29,751 bpd in December, up 14 percent from a November average of 26,096 bpd. Production from Kuparuk averaged 220,791 bpd in December, up 13.81 percent from a November average of 193,999 bpd. Prudhoe Bay averaged 503,693 bpd, up 13.8 percent from a November average of 442,621 bpd.

Alpine averaged 102,813 bpd in December, up 10.53 percent from a November average of 93,019. Milne Point averaged 52,732 bpd in December, up 3.61 percent from a November average of 50,896 bpd. Northstar held almost level, up just 0.76 percent to a December average of 55,199 bpd after a November average of 54,783 bpd.

Cook Inlet production averaged 29,937 bpd in December, up 4.92 percent from a November average of 28,534 bpd.


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