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Barrow gas field could grow -- at a cost
2025 Producers' Preview story: Far north natural gas fields in North Slope Borough entering fifth decade of local use
Eric Lidji for Petroleum News
The Barrow Gas Transfer Act of 1984 might be the most underappreciated piece of federal legislation in Alaska oil patch history. Although rarely discussed today, the law changed the way one Alaska community accessed natural resources for local benefit.
The Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976 is best remembered today for transferring the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to the Department of Interior and launching a second wave of exploration in large tract of North Slope property. The statute also required the Department of Interior to supply gas to Utqiaġvik at fair rates.
Once the federal NPR-A exploration program was finished in the early 1980s, the Barrow Gas Transfer Act was proposed to "get Interior out of the utility business by transferring the gas fields and facilities to that village," according to a 1984 memo from John Roberts, who was a White House Counsel at the time. In the memo, Roberts argued that the move essentially privatized a government function, consistent with administration policy.
Shepherded through Congress by Rep. Don Young and Sen. Frank Murkowski, and signed by President Ronald Reagan in July 1984 amid a presidential campaign, the law gave 19 wells in the three Barrow gas fields and associated subsurface rights to the North Slope Borough. As much as $30 million in appropriated exploration funds would be redirected to the North Slope Borough to cover maintenance activities at the field.
The bill also gave associated sand and gravel rights to the Ukpeaġvik Inupiat Corp. And the law made various changes to existing statutes and regulations to give those entities the ability to produce from existing wells and to expand development.
While one can argue whether transferring gas fields from federal to local control constitutes "privatization," the bill effectively moved the project off the federal books and created a model for local control of energy resources -- a perpetual Alaska subject.
Discovery The federal government discovered the Barrow gas fields as part of post-war exploration campaigns in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to improve domestic energy security. With the 1984 transfer, the South Barrow, East Barrow and Walakpa fields have since provided affordable and predictable energy for the city of Utqiaġvik for decades.
Even with these benefits, the full impact of the legislation remains unfulfilled. The law empowered the North Slope Borough to deliver natural gas to surrounding villages.
Utqiaġvik had nearly 3,000 people when the law passed, while the villages of Wainwright and Atqasuk combined for some 600 people. Today, Utqiaġvik has more than 5,000 people and the other two cities combined have nearly 1,000 people. Adding the village of Point Lay could potentially bring another 350 or so customers onto the grid.
Pipeline opportunity In its most recent comprehensive plan looking forward through 2039, the North Slope Borough noted this opportunity. "Developing pipelines from Utqiaġvik to nearby communities of Atqasuk, Point Lay, and Wainwright is consistent with the Barrow Gas Field Transfer Act and would provide a sustainable source of energy," the report wrote.
Of course, all North Slope construction is easy to describe and hard to execute. Extending the current Utqiaġvik grid to include Atqasuk, Wainwright, and Point Lay could require perhaps 250 miles of pipeline, costing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.
To date, the biggest intervention at the Barrow gas field came in 2011, when the North Slope Borough launched a $92 million program to improve production and deliverability.
The program included the Savik 1 and 2 wells at the East Barrow field and the Walakpa 11, 12 and 13 wells at the Walakpa field. By improving deliverability at those two fields, the city of Utqiaġvik can now rely on natural gas for its energy needs even during cold snaps or during maintenance activities, instead of switching to diesel as an alternative.
In terms of cost, a pipeline system along the coastline would be several orders of magnitude greater than the 2011 program but could potentially yield wide benefits.
Beyond the direct assistance to nearly 1,350 people living in these remote communities, a regional pipeline system could improve the economics of development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska by pushing the existing grid far beyond its western extent.
A half-century of step-out development on the North Slope has the pipeline grid to the Greater Mooses Tooth unit. Hundreds of miles of NPR-A lie beyond it. Through the decades, companies have drilled promising wildcats in western Alaska, only to abandon the projects in the face of the impossible economics of remote Arctic development.
With a pipeline system connecting villages along the Chukchi Sea coastline, step-out development could potential proceed in two directions through the NPR-A.
South Barrow The U.S. Navy discovered the South Barrow field in 1948. Drilling continued through 1987 with 13 new wells and one deepened well, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The field came online in November 1981 at 3.5 million cubic feet per day and continued consistently from 1950 through 1990, at which point operators began to suspend production sporadically. The field was shut-in with increasing regularly through the 2000s, often being used only to increase supplies in winter. South Barrow experienced dramatic production swings in recent years: 56.1 million cubic feet in 2020, 99.3 mmcf in 2021, down to 37.5 mmcf in 2022, up to 61.4 mmcf in 2023, down to 49.7 mmcf in 2024. AOGCC reports suggest the field has been offline since June 2024.
Cumulative production at South Barrow is more than 24.2 billion cubic feet, according to the AOGCC. Early forecasts had estimated 32 billion cubic feet in lifetime production.
East Barrow The U.S Geologic Survey discovered the East Barrow field in 1974. Drilling continued through 1990, with eight wells total, followed by the 2011 rejuvenation campaign.
The East Barrow field has also reported some dramatic production swings in recent years: 139.1 mmcf in 2020, down to 47 mmcf in 2021, up to 99.3 mmcf in 2022 and down to 83.1 mmcf in 2023. The field was taken offline in mid-2023, according to the AOGCC, but came back online in December 2024 and produced 73.3 mmcf through June 2025.
Cumulative production through June 2024 was more than 10 billion cubic feet, well above the original gas-in-place estimate of 6.2 billion cubic feet for East Barrow. The city of Utqiaġvik attributes the productivity to the presence of methane hydrates at the field.
Walakpa Working under a U.S. Navy contract, Husky Oil discovered the Walakpa field in the 1980s. The field was included in the 2011 rejuvenation campaign. Walakpa is the most extensive and productive of the three Barrow gas fields, producing from 11 wells.
The Walakpa field produced some 1.45 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2024, up from 1.34 bcf in 2023, 1.388 bcf in 2022 and 1.413 bcf in 2021, according to the AOGCC. Cumulative production through June 30, 2025, was more than 41.4 billion cubic feet.
The South Barrow and East Barrow reservoirs have a stratigraphic setting similar to the Alpine oil field. Walakpa is in the Pebble Shale unit, a major North Slope source rock.
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