North Slope production averaged 885,142 barrels per day in September, up 22.5 percent from an August average of 722,559 bpd, as fields returned to normal after planned and unplanned maintenance and construction activities had fields down for varying amounts of time from mid-July through mid-September.
Alpine had a “plant upset” Sept. 18-19, but other than that has been enjoying the results of completion of phase one of the field’s capacity handling expansion, hitting a new production record of 117,250 bpd Sept. 27. Alpine’s capacity has been in the 100,000-105,000 bpd range, and was expected to grow by 5,000 bpd from this summer’s work, which increased produced water handling capacity. The field’s capacity will increase to 140,000 bpd after next summer’s capacity expansion work is completed.
Production at Endicott was up 90 percent in September over August, averaging 17,241 bpd, compared to 9,067 bpd in August.
September production at Northstar, which had a compressor failure in August, was up 54 percent, averaging 76,291 bpd in September compared to 49,600 bpd for August.
Production at Prudhoe Bay averaged 391,430 bpd in September, up 11.5 percent from an August average of 350,955 bpd, but still below a July average of 397,464 bpd. Prudhoe had a scheduled maintenance shutdown in August and field operator BP had difficulty getting the field back online.
The Kuparuk River unit averaged 192,227 bpd in September, up 9.28 percent from 175,907 bpd in August.
Lisburne averaged 45,944 bpd in September, up 8.2 percent from an August average of 42,448 bpd, while Milne Point averaged 52,579 bpd in September, up 3.6 percent from an August average of 50,765 bpd.
Cook Inlet production averaged 25,624 bpd, up 8.8 percent from an August average of 23,550 bpd.
