ARCO Alaska Inc. said Dec. 31 that the West Sak oil field on Alaska’s North Slope began commercial production Dec. 26. 
The first well is currently producing 200 barrels of oil per day, and is expected to reach 300 barrels of oil per day. 
Fifty West Sak wells, including injection wells, are scheduled for completion by early 1999, the company said. Work on the field began in October and nine wells have been drilled and cased and will soon be in operation. 
ARCO Alaska President Ken Thompson said that phase one of the West Sak development program is on budget and on time. The program will, he said, “contribute to achieving ARCO’s North Slope production goal of ‘no decline after 99.’” 
“This effort will develop 51 million barrels of new reserves (26 million ARCO net) and add near term production of 4,000 b/d gross in 1998, increasing to 7,000 b/d day gross in early 1999,” Thompson said. 
The company said that success with phase one of the West Sak development would mean an additional 500 wells would be drilled, yielding additional reserves of 400 million barrels and pushing West Sak production to 37,000 barrels per day in 2002 and to 70,000 barrels per day by 2005. 
Thompson noted that West Sak success “is dependent on our ability to develop and operate the field at low cost.” 
“We’re hitting our cost targets on the development side,” he said. “We expect to be just as successful in our operation of the field.” 
ARCO Alaska estimates phase one development costs at $98 million. The development makes extensive use of existing Kuparuk drill sties, common lines and processing centers, as well as low cost drilling and completion technologies. 
The West Sak field is owned by ARCO Alaska Inc. (55 percent), BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (39 percent), Unocal (5 percent), Mobil and Chevron. The large, relatively shallow viscous oil at West Sak overlies much of the ARCO-operated Kuparuk River field. West Sak oil in place has been estimated at more than 15 billion barrels.