U.S. oil and natural gas reserves up in 2001

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration said Sept. 27 that U.S. crude oil and natural gas proved reserves increased in 2001, replacing production by a substantial margin.

One new deepwater field in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Thunder Horse, accounted for a significant portion of all new oil reserves. The EIA said that after development Thunder Horse will be the largest field in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to produce at a peak rate of 250,000 barrels per day, with initial production expected in 2005.

EIA said that in addition to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico federal offshore, Alaska also contributed to the growth of proved reserves, both from new fields and from field extensions.

The EIA said reserves additions exceeded production by 21 percent for oil and 31 percent for natural gas in 2001, with U.S. crude oil proved reserves increasing by almost 2 percent in 2001 proved reserves of dry natural gas increasing 3.4 percent.

The majority of crude oil discoveries in 2001 were in new fields, the agency said, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico federal offshore and in Alaska.

Proved reserves of crude oil in the United States declined 17 out of 19 years from 1977 through 1996, but increased four out of the last five years, the EIA said.

“New field discoveries of oil in 2001 were at the highest level since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay field (reserves) were booked in the 1970s,” the agency said.