July ANS production down 19% from June

Maintenance shutdown of trans-Alaska oil pipeline in mid-month plus other maintenance results in July average of only 462,407 bpd

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alaska North Slope crude oil production plunged in mid-July due to a planned maintenance shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, hitting 209,193 barrels per day July 16, the day the shutdown began, and 194,189 bpd on July 17, the day the 36-hour shutdown ended.

Proration around that shutdown, combined with ongoing maintenance at the Lisburne field and the beginning of work at Flow Station 3 on the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay, resulted in an average of 462,407 bpd from the North Slope in July, down 18.9 percent from an average of 570,173 bpd in June. There was also planned maintenance in June, bringing production down from a May average of 604,509 bpd.

Except where noted, volumes are from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division, which tracks production by major production centers and provides daily production and monthly averages.

The largest drops in production were at Prudhoe Bay, which averaged 204,492 bpd in July, down 96,648 bpd from a June average of 301,140 bpd (a 32 percent decline) and at Lisburne, at 8,683 bpd down 48 percent from a June average of 16,718 bpd, a drop of 8,035 bpd.

Flow Station 2 at the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Prudhoe Bay field was down for about a week at the end of July following a release of produced fluids and crude oil in the primary flare containment July 21. (See story in this issue.)

FS-2 came back up following resolution of the flare issue.

A planned maintenance shutdown at Flow Station 3 at Prudhoe began at the end of July.

Prudhoe Bay includes production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris.

The BP-operated Lisburne field went down for scheduled maintenance in mid-June; production began again July 22. By comparison with June and July, Lisburne averaged 26,342 bpd in May.

The largest month-to-month increase in production, 6,489 bpd in July compared to 908 bpd in June, was at the BP-operated Endicott field. Endicott had been down for planned maintenance all of June, with the only barrels coming through the Endicott pipeline those from Badami, the farthest east field on the North Slope.

Endicott production began to ramp up July 7, and peaked at 9,418 July 19.

Revenue does not break out Badami production figures but the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission provides data by field, although on a delayed basis. June data from AOGCC for Badami shows an average of 1,208 bpd.

The only other North Slope field to have a July-over-June production increase was the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field, which averaged 137,027 bpd in July, up 0.7 percent from a June average of 136,131 bpd. Kuparuk includes production from satellites at Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and West Sak, as well as production from the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field and the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field.

AOGCC data for June production from Nikaitchuq shows an average of 6,375 bpd; the June production average for Oooguruk was 7,825 bpd.

Production from the BP-operated Milne Point field averaged 20,599 bpd in July, down 10.3 percent from a June average of 22,968 bpd. Milne includes Sag River and Schrader Bluff production.

The ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 72,338 bpd in July, down 8.1 percent from a June average of 78,698 bpd. Alpine includes satellite production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.

The BP-operated Northstar field averaged 12,779 bpd in July, down 6.1 percent from a June average of 13,610 bpd.

The temperature at Pump Station 1 on the North Slope averaged 49.7 F in July, compared to 39.9 F in June.

Cook Inlet production averaged 10,662 bpd in July, down 4.2 percent from a June average of 11,125 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.