|
Prudhoe power outage drives ANS down 7% April North Slope crude oil averaged 506,441 bpd, down from 543,735 in March; Cook Inlet averaged 15,854 bpd in March, down 1.2% KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 506,441 barrels per day in April, down 6.9 percent, a drop of 37,294 bpd, from a March average of 543,735 bpd.
The drop was driven by a 14.5 percent month-over-month decline at Prudhoe Bay following a power outage at the field, the North Slope’s largest, on April 24. Prudhoe production averaged 263,261 bpd in April, down 14.5 percent, a drop of 44,714 bpd, from a March average of 307,975 bpd.
Field operator BP Exploration (Alaska) said in an April 25 statement that crews were in the process of restarting production, and expected “to bring all of the affected oil processing facilities back into service over the next two days,” with oil production to ramp up gradually thereafter.
Data from the Department of Revenue’s Tax Division showed a production drop from 298,705 barrels at Prudhoe April 23 to 150,086 barrels April 24, bottoming out April 25 at 57,781 barrels and climbing back to 203,753 barrels April 30.
The Tax Division reports North Slope oil production consolidated by major production centers and provides daily production and monthly averages. More detailed data, including Cook Inlet and individual North Slope fields and pools, is reported by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on a month-delay basis.
Prudhoe Bay production as reported by the Tax Division includes the initial producing areas and satellite production from Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion, Polaris, Sag River, Schrader Bluff and Ugnu, as well as production from the Hilcorp Alaska-operated Milne Point and North Star fields.
AOGCC data for March shows an average of 19,274 bpd at Milne Point, down 1.3 percent from a February average of 19,518 bpd, and an average of 5,391 bpd at Northstar, down 2.1 percent from a February average of 5,510 bpd.
Kuparuk The second largest North Slope producing area, ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Kuparuk River, was down marginally, averaging 141,307 bpd in April, down 0.1 percent from a March average of 141,937 bpd.
Kuparuk volumes include satellite production from Meltwater, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak, as well as the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Caelus Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.
AOGCC data show Nikaitchuq averaged 24,449 bpd in March, down 3.9 percent from a February average of 25,442 bpd, while Oooguruk averaged 13,388 bpd, up 39.5 percent from a February average of 9,596 bpd.
The ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated Alpine field averaged 66,842 bpd in April, up 9.1 percent from a March average of 61,247 bpd. Alpine, where ConocoPhillips brought the CD5 drill site online late last year, includes satellite production from Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik.
Endicott, Lisburne Production for Hilcorp Alaska-operated Endicott averaged 10,231 bpd in April, up 22.4 percent from a March average of 8,358 bpd. Endicott volumes include satellite production from Eider, Minke and Sag Delta, as well as production from the Savant Alaska-operated Badami field and, as of late April, production from the ExxonMobil-operated Point Thomson field.
Initial AOGCC data on Point Thomson production should be available starting in May (for April).
Commission data for Badami shows that field averaged 1,047 bpd in March, up 0.3 percent from a February average of 1,044 bpd.
BP-operated Lisburne, part of Greater Prudhoe Bay, averaged 24,800 bpd in April, up 0.2 percent from a March average of 24,758 bpd. Lisburne volumes include Niakuk, Point McIntyre and Raven.
Cook Inlet Cook Inlet production averaged 15,854 bpd in March, down 1.2 percent from a February average of 16,049 bpd.
Hilcorp Alaska-operated Beaver Creek, the smallest producing oil field in the Cook Inlet basin, averaged 129 bpd in March, up 2.9 percent from a February average of 125 bpd.
Hilcorp’s Granite Point field averaged 2,542 bpd in March, down 0.9 percent from a February average of 2,565 bpd.
McArthur River field, also operated by Hilcorp and the largest oil field in Cook Inlet, averaged 5,063 bpd in March, down 2.5 percent from a February average of 5,190 bpd.
Hilcorp’s Middle Ground Shoal field averaged 1,841 bpd in March, unchanged from February.
Cook Inlet Energy’s Redoubt Shoal field averaged 640 bpd in March, up 3.4 percent from a February average of 619 bpd.
Hilcorp’s Swanson River field averaged 2,288 bpd in March, up 12 percent from a February average of 2,042 bpd.
Trading Bay, also operated by Hilcorp, averaged 2,341 bpd in March, down 8 percent from a February average of 2,545 bpd.
Cook Inlet Energy’s West McArthur River averaged 1,011 bpd in March, down 9.9 percent from a February average of 1,121 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.
|
