April ANS production down from March

Alaska North Slope averages 587,162 bpd, with largest month-over-month percentage drop at Kuparuk, largest volume drop at Prudhoe

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 587,162 barrels per day in April, down 0.66 percent, 3,904 bpd, from a March average of 591,066 bpd. In April 2011, ANS crude oil production averaged 634,028 bpd.

The largest month-over-month drop by percentage was at the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field, which averaged 127,614 bpd in April, down 3.9 percent and 5,178 bpd from a March average of 132,792 bpd.

Kuparuk River production includes satellites at Tabasco, Tarn and Meltwater and West Sak viscous oil production. Kuparuk volumes also include oil from the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.

Except where noted, volumes in this story are from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division, which reports oil production only by major production centers and provides daily production and monthly averages.

The most recent figures from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, reported by field and pool, are for March. In that month, Nikaitchuq averaged 7,850 bpd, down 2.27 percent from a February average of 8,032 bpd, while Oooguruk averaged 5,820 bpd in March, down from 5,844 bpd in February.

The largest month-over-month volume drop between March and April was at the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Prudhoe Bay field, which averaged 329,105 bpd, down 6,508 bpd or 1.94 percent from a March average of 335,613 bpd. Prudhoe production volumes include satellite fields at Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion, Polaris and Point McIntyre.

Prudhoe volumes also include production from the BP-operated Northstar and Milne Point fields. AOGCC figures for March show Milne Point averaging 17,560 bpd and Northstar averaging 9,126 bpd.

Production from the BP-operated Endicott field, which includes Badami volumes, averaged 12,078 bpd in April, up 3.5 percent from a March average of 11,669 bpd. AOGCC figures for March show 1,197 bpd from Badami, an increase of 8 percent from February production averaging 1,107 bpd.

The BP-operated Lisburne field, part of Greater Prudhoe Bay, averaged 42,226 bpd in April, up 30 percent from a March average of 33,939 bpd. Lisburne production includes Point McIntyre and Niakuk.

AOGCC figures for Cook Inlet show an average of 10,072 bpd in March, down 14.4 percent from a February average of 11,391 bpd. Only three fields in Cook Inlet have production exceeding 1,000 bpd: Granite Point at 1,947 bpd; McArthur River at 3,957 bpd; and Middle Ground Shoal at 2,345 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.