ANS June production down 9.4% from May

All North Slope reporting areas down except Lisburne; May Cook Inlet production down 6.7% from April after increase that month

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 516,871 barrels per day in June, down 9.4 percent from a May average of 570,770 bpd.

The largest per-barrel drop was at the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field, which averaged 102,095 bpd in June, down 29,374 bpd, 22.34 percent, from a May average of 131,469 bpd. Kuparuk includes satellite production from West Sak, Tabasco, Tarn and Meltwater, as well as production from the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.

Except where noted, volumes 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 for the most recent month.

Data from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which is on a pool and field basis, but on a month delay, shows an average of 7,146 bpd in May from Nikaitchuq, down 4.53 percent from an April average of 7,486 bpd, and average production from Oooguruk of 9,938 bpd in May, up by 56.6 percent from an April average of 6,349 bpd.

AOGCC data shows the largest May-over-April production increases at Oooguruk came from the Torok pool, which averaged 1,922 bpd in May, up 180 percent from an April average of 685 bpd, and from the Nuiqsut pool, which averaged 5,885 bpd in May, up 75 percent from an April average of 3,361 bpd. Production from the third pool at Oooguruk, the Kuparuk pool, declined 7.5 percent, averaging 2,132 bpd in May, down from an April average of 2,303 bpd.

AOGCC data shows that all current crude oil production from Nikaitchuq is from the Schrader Bluff pool.

Endicott down 40 percent

The BP-operated Prudhoe Bay field averaged 305,132 bpd in June, down 6 percent from a May average of 324,819 bpd. Prudhoe Bay production includes satellite fields at Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris, as well as production from BP-operated fields at Milne Point and Northstar.

The ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 75,049 bpd in June, down 2.9 percent from a May average of 77,277 bpd. Alpine production includes satellites at Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik. AOGCC data for May showed 67.l percent of crude oil from the main Alpine formation, followed by 29.3 percent from Fiord, 2.4 percent from Qannik and 1.2 percent from Nanuq.

The BP-operated Lisburne field (including production from Point McIntyre and Niakuk) is the only North Slope field to show increased June-over-May production, averaging 27,376 bpd in June compared to 25,104 bpd in May, a 9 percent increase. Lisburne production, however, had dropped 41 percent from 42,226 bpd in April to the May figure.

Cook Inlet

Cook Inlet crude oil production is from Beaver Creek, Granite Point, McArthur River, Middle Ground Shoal, Redoubt Shoal, Swanson River, Trading Bay and West McArthur River, with only three of those fields — Granite Point, McArthur River and Middle Ground Shoal — producing more than 1,000 bpd.

The Hilcorp Alaska-operated McArthur River field averaged 4,030 bpd in May, down 2.2 percent from an April average of 4,122 bpd.

Middle Ground Shoal, operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO, averaged 2,381 bpd in May, up 1 percent from an April average of 2,357 bpd.

Hilcorp-operated Granite Point averaged 2,201 bpd in May, up 1.5 percent from an April average of 2,170 bpd.

Cook Inlet Energy-operated Redoubt Shoal and West McArthur River both had less production in May than in April, with Redoubt Shoal down 64 percent to an average of 159 bpd, from 446 bpd in April, and West McArthur River down 44 percent to 651 bpd from an April average of 1,158 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.