Producers 2025: ConocoPhillips growing multiple ways

Alaska's legacy operator is advancing expansion at all its major properties DECK: Alaska's legacy operator is advancing expansion at all its major properties

Eric Lidji

for Petroleum News

Where are the areas of growth for ConocoPhillips on the North Slope?

The longest-serving operator in Alaska is finding new oil resources in several ways: through a steady regimen of workover activities, through new horizons at legacy fields, and through the steady westward expansion dating back more than 40 years.

ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. produced 46.2 million barrels of oil from its operated Alaska properties in 2024, down about 2.7 percent from 47.5 million barrels of oil in 2023. The figure includes production from the Kuparuk River unit, the Colville River unit, and the Greater Mooses Tooth unit. The ConocoPhillips-operated Bear Tooth unit is not yet online. ConocoPhillips also maintains a non-operating stake in the Prudhoe Bay unit.

Considering the slate of projects currently on deck, it is entirely possible that the company will report year-over-year oil production growth in the coming years.

The primary activities at the Kuparuk River unit involve ongoing efforts to develop the Torok and Nanushuk through work at Drill Site 3S and 3T, as well as continuing work at the West Sak participating areas. Colville River expansion is anchored to the proposed CD8 pad, which would improve access to the Nanushuk at the south of the unit.

Greatest growth area

The success of those two projects is creating conditions for ConocoPhillips to consider further NPR-A expansion to the south and to the west of its existing properties.

Kuparuk River unit

The Torok and Coyote participating areas are being developed from the existing 3S Drill Site and from the new 3T Drill Site that was commissioned in December 2024.

Torok is a Moraine play associated with the former Nuna satellite. The participating area covers 16,102 acres in the northwest of the Kuparuk River unit. Oil discoveries by earlier operators in the mid-1960s, 1980s, and 1990s were uneconomic due to high water cuts.

Successful tests of horizontal multi-stage fracs at the Oooguruk unit to the north suggested new approaches. ConocoPhillips drilled 3S-19 and Nuna No. 1, followed by three producer/injector pairs: 3S Phase 1 (2015), Phase 2 (2018) and Phase 3 (2023).

ConocoPhillips sanctioned a $900 million 29-well development in 2023. The company initially expected to bring the participating area online in 2025. Peak production is estimated at 20,000 barrels per day with cumulative recovery of around 100 million barrels.

In the development year ending July 31, 2025, ConocoPhillips drilled seven wells into the Torok participating areas from Drill Site 3S and Drill Site 3T, one less than it had forecasted. The company is planning a 10-well program at the Torok PA in the development year ending July 31, 2026.

ConocoPhillips produced 3,600 barrels of oil and 6.7 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Torok participating area in 2024, according to the company.

The Coyote participating area is associated with the Nanushuk formation. The Coyote participating area covers 16,278 acres at the western end of the unit. Earlier exploration in the mid-1960s, 1980s, early 1990s, and early 2000s yielded no oil production.

In its plan of development, ConocoPhillips said it had drilled two of nine planned wells by early July 2025 with the remaining seven expected by the end of that month. Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records confirmed all nine wells were drilled. The company is planning only one Coyote participating area well in the coming year.

ConocoPhillips produced 1,700 barrels of oil and 800,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Coyote participating area in 2024, according to the company.

West Sak is a legacy participating area that continues to provide new opportunities. ConocoPhillips drilled three West Sak wells by the end of 2024 and has completed seven workovers in the combined West Sak participating areas through the end of April 2025.

In the coming year, ConocoPhillips is planning four West Sak wells. In its current plan of development ConocoPhillips said it plans to apply to expand the West Sak Participating Area before July 2026 but provided no additional details about the expansion project.

In addition to the work at these three areas, ConocoPhillips completed as many as 42 workover projects at the Kuparuk, Tarn, and Tabasco participating areas last year.

According to the AOGCC, the Kuparuk River unit produced 76,500 barrels of oil per day (28 million barrels total) in 2024, down from 79,700 barrels of oil per day (29 million barrels total) in 2023. The unit produced 15.4 million barrels in the first half of 2025, suggesting growth from 3S and 3T and the potential for a year-over-year increase.

Colville River unit

ConocoPhillips completed the Titan No. 1 well and the CD5-32X wells.

ConocoPhillips expanded the Colville River unit this past year by establishing the Minke participating area in February 2025 and drilled the CD5-629 producer and CD5-697 injector pair. The company ultimately deferred the Nanuq Kuparuk well to accommodate the Minke program and deferred the Narwhal well 'due to a capital reevaluation.'

In addition to these projects, ConocoPhillips finished reprocessing the Narwhal Merge 3D seismic survey to support the development of the CD8 pad. The project combined the 2020 Narwhal 3D seismic survey and the 2022 SAExploration 3D seismic survey.

The CD8 pad would access Narwhal resources beyond the CD4 pad. ConocoPhillips has already drilled eight Narwhal wells from CD4. The CD8 region is known as the 5th expansion area and is managed under special reporting requirements from the state.

The Narwhal participating area has gone by many names over the years. ConocoPhillips called the prospect Titania in the early 2000s. Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. called it Tofkat in the mid-2000s. ConocoPhillips called the prospect Putu in the late 2010s and later announced a 100 million-to-350-million-barrel Nanushuk discovery at Narwhal.

ConocoPhillips began permitting in early 2025. As currently envisioned, the Narwhal project includes 'a new gravel pad connected by a gravel access road with associated pipelines and power tied back into CD4 for processing and eventual sales at Alpine processing facilities. The current plan envisions 20-40 wells from CD8 with first oil by 2030.

The Colville River unit includes nine participating areas, four oil pools, and nine distinct reservoirs within those pools. In the current development year, ConocoPhillips is planning no development work at any of the participating areas: Alpine, Fiord Kuparuk, Fiord Nechelik, Fiord West Kuparuk, Nanuq Nanuq, Qannik, Narwhal, and Minke.

Colville River produced 12.7 million barrels of oil in 2024, up from 12.4 million barrels of oil produced in 2023. The unit produced 6.1 million barrels in the first half of 2025.

Greater Mooses Tooth

The 23-million-acre Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 was created in 1923 as an emergency oil supply. The U.S. Navy managed the area until 1976, when Congress shifted responsibility to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management and renamed the area the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Following a planning process in the late 1990s, BLM held its first NPR-A lease sale in 1999.

Following exploration, Phillips Alaska announced discoveries in May 2001: Spark No. 1, Spark No. 1A, Moose's Tooth C, Lookout No. 1, Rendezvous A, and Rendezvous No. 2.

Those discoveries were inaccessible without some plan to cross the Nigliq Channel. The project prompted extended legal and regulatory battles before being resolved in 2015.

ConocoPhillips now operates two NPR-A units: Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth.

Greater Mooses Tooth is producing from two pads. ConocoPhillips brought Lookout online from GMT-1 in 2018 and brought Rendezvous online from GMT-2 in 2021.

According to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission records, Greater Mooses Tooth has 33 active wells. There are nine active wells at Lookout (four producers and five injectors) and 24 active wells at Rendezvous (13 producers and 11 injectors).

The company drilled nine Rendezvous wells at Greater Mooses Tooth in 2024: GMTU-MT7-03A, GMTU-MT7-15, GMTU-MT7-83, GMTU-MT7-83PH1, GMTU-MT7-88, GMTU-MT7-89, GMTU-MT7-91, GMTU-MT7-92, and GMTU-MT7-93.

The company had no permitted or drilled any new Greater Mooses Tooth wells by August 2025.

ConocoPhillips produced 513,309 barrels of oil from the Lookout field in 2024, down from 594,976 barrels produced in 2023. The company produced 4,942,582 barrels of oil from the Rendezvous field in 2024, down from 5,350,571 barrels produced in 2023.

Bear Tooth

The territory west of Greater Mooses Tooth was opened by an exploration campaign 15 years later. The two-well Tinmiaq exploration program in early 2016 lead to an announcement of a major discovery in the Nanushuk formation called Willow.

Willow was initially estimated to contain some 300 million barrels of recoverable oil and to have the potential to produce as much as 100,000 barrels per day at its peak. In subsequent documents, the company increased the resource estimate to 600 million barrels of recoverable oil and the peak production estimate to 180,000 barrels per day.

Efforts to delineate Willow from 2018 onward were slowed by legal and regulatory challenges, as well as the obstacles of the pandemic era.

ConocoPhillips sanctioned a $7.5 billion development in late 2023 with the goal of reaching first oil by 2029.

By early 2025, ConocoPhillips had some 2,400 workers working at the Willow project on 350 miles of ice road, 30 miles of pipeline, 1,101,000 cubic yards of gravel, and two bridges, not to mention two Willow Operations Center modules at the 30-acre pad.

This activity is accommodating year-round construction. In a first-quarter earnings call in May 2025, ConocoPhillips Senior Vice President Kirk Johnson said, 'So on ... winter construction, we're now roughly 50 percent, if not slightly better, on completion of all of our civil scopes ' roads, pads, bridges ' and we've got about 80 miles of pipeline installed.'

And 'very importantly,' Johnson added, the project team executed a horizontal directional drill underneath 'one of the key waterways and that allows us to connect east-west pipelines... Again, we continued build out of that infrastructure.'

By the second quarter call in August 2025, ConocoPhillips Alaska President Erec Isaacson said, 'The Willow Operations Center remains on schedule for year-end commissioning and permanent camp occupancy, and the Willow Construction Camp is operational, enabling year-round construction activities.'

Speaking at the AOGA Conference in late August 2025, ConocoPhillips Asset Development Manager Donald Allen said, 'Engineering and fabrication of the modules continues with delivery expected to the North Slope in 2027, and in 2027 we also expect to start up the pre-drilling.'

The progress at Willow is allowing ConocoPhillips to consider opportunities to the west and to the south. The company has applied for a seismic program south of Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth and a one-well exploration program at Greater Mooses Tooth. The company has also requested authorization for a three-well exploration program with one well in the Bear Tooth unit and two wells to the west of Bear Tooth.

With these projects, Allen said, 'You can expect us to follow our same disciplined development approach. We'll continue to look for ways to leverage our existing infrastructure and gravel for low capital intensity tieback projects where they exist.'