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Alpine satellite projected at 15,800 bpd
When brought online, the first oil development inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is expected to produce about 15,800 barrels per day, an executive for ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. said.
The project is known as CD-5, which ConocoPhillips is planning just inside the eastern boundary of the vast reserve. CD-5 will function as a “satellite” to the large Alpine field to the east. ConocoPhillips has operated Alpine, in the Colville River Delta, since 2000.
ConocoPhillips has said construction of CD-5, also known as Alpine West, is scheduled to begin in the winter of 2014. Initial production is expected in late 2015, the company said in a Feb. 19 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Info from court filing The projection of 15,800 barrels of oil per day appeared in a June 25 court declaration from Nicholas G. Olds, vice president of North Slope operations and development for ConocoPhillips Alaska.
The declaration was filed as part of proceedings in a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit ConocoPhillips obtained for the CD-5 project.
ConocoPhillips is fighting to keep the permit and proceed with the project.
“To date, the (Colville River unit) working interest owners have spent in excess of $100 million on acquiring, exploring and developing the CD-5 project,” the Olds declaration said.
CD-5 is one of several planned or existing Alpine satellites. It would be the first permanent oil development facility in the Maine-sized petroleum reserve, which the federal government designated in 1923 for its oil and gas potential.
Overall production from Alpine, including its Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik satellite fields, averaged 63,425 barrels of crude oil per day in June, according to figures from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
—Wesley Loy
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