May ANS production down 2.8% from April

Prudhoe production down 4,200 bpd; Lisburne down 17,000 bpd; April Cook Inlet crude oil production up 16.6% from March

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 570,770 barrels per day in May, down 2.8 percent from an April average of 587,162 bpd. The largest per-barrel and percentage decline was at the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Lisburne field, which averaged 25,104 bpd in May, down 40.55 percent (17,122 bpd) from an April average of 42,226. Lisburne includes production from the Lisburne, Niakuk and Point McIntyre fields. No operational information was available from BP to explain the Lisburne production decline.

Production from the BP-operated Prudhoe Bay field also declined, averaging 324,819 bpd in May, down 1.3 percent (4,286 bpd) compared to an April average of 329,105 bpd. Prudhoe Bay production includes the Northstar and Milne Point fields, as well as production from Prudhoe satellites at Aurora, Borealis, Orion, Polaris, Sag River and Schrader Bluff.

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.

Increases at other fields

The largest increase, 3 percent, was at the ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River field, which averaged 131,469 bpd in May, up 3,855 bpd from an April average of 127,614.

Kuparuk totals include satellite production from Meltwater, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak, as well as production from the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.

Data for Nikaitchuq and Oooguruk is available on a month-delay basis from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Nikaitchuq averaged 7,486 bpd in April, down 4.6 percent (364 bpd) from a March average of 7,850 bpd. Oooguruk averaged 6,349 bpd in April, up 9.1 percent (529 bpd) from a March average of 5,820 bpd.

Production from the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field averaged 77,277 bpd in May, up 1.5 percent from an April average of 76,139 bpd. Alpine includes satellite production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik. Alpine and satellites are all part of the Colville River unit on the western edge of developed state lands, adjacent to the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. April AOGCC figures show the majority of Colville River unit production, more than 66 percent, is from Alpine, with Fiord at 30 percent providing the majority of the remainder.

Production from the BP-operated Endicott field averaged 12,101 bpd in May, up 0.2 percent from an April average of 12,078. Endicott includes production from the Savant Alaska-operated Badami field, currently the farthest east production on the North Slope. AOGCC figures for April show Badami averaged 1,296 bpd, up 16 percent from a March average of 1,119 bpd.

Cook Inlet up 16.6 percent

All fields had increased production, with the Cook Inlet Energy-operated West McArthur River showing the largest percent increase, 296 percent, up from 292 bpd in March to 1,158 bpd in April, also the largest per-barrel increase, 866 barrels.

Cook Inlet production is from Beaver Creek, Granite Point, McArthur River, Middle Ground Shoal, Redoubt Shoal, Swanson River, Trading Bay and West McArthur River. Only Granite Point (2,170 bpd), McArthur River (4,122 bpd), Middle Ground Shoal (2,357 bpd) and West McArthur River (1,158 bpd) currently average more than 1,000 bpd. McArthur River is operated by Hilcorp Alaska, which is in the process of purchasing Granite Point, currently operated by Marathon Oil; Middle Ground Shoal is operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO.

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.