AGS conference, Petroleum News, commemorate Prudhoe discovery

The Alaska Geological Society plans to include an invited lecture series commemorating the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in the society’s 2008 annual technical conference on April 17.

Petroleum News is commemorating the discovery in a special publication to be released toward the end of the year.

The AGS conference will take place in the BP Energy Center in Anchorage. Lecture topics potentially include:

• Initial state land selections;

• Early exploration and discovery;

• Prudhoe Bay today;

• The historical economics of Prudhoe;

• Prudhoe gas and Alaska North Slope gas; and

• Exploration after Prudhoe.

AGS is also inviting abstracts on diverse Alaska geologic topics for the conference poster session. The society’s Web site is at www.alaskageology.org.

Rose Ragsdale and Kay Cashman will oversee Petroleum News’ Prudhoe Bay commemorative publication, which will be a full-color, slick magazine. They can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 907 229-7057.

Although ARCO Alaska successor ConocoPhillips and Petroleum News view 2008 as the 40th anniversary year for Prudhoe Bay, there has always been a certain amount of debate about the exact date that should be ascribed to the Prudhoe Bay discovery. One view is that the official discovery date should be Feb. 1, 1968, the day that oil shows were first found in the Sadlerochit group that contains the Prudhoe Bay reservoir. An evaluation of well logs run on Feb. 8, 1968, then determined the existence of a significant oil discovery and a press release announced the discovery on Feb. 16, 1968.

However, the Prudhoe Bay discovery well tested a high volume of gas from the gas cap in the Sadlerochit on Dec. 27, 1967, but a drill stem test of the oil discovery was not carried out until Feb. 18, 1968.

—Petroleum News