|
ANS production up slightly from November Most of month-over-month gain at Alpine, Kuparuk; in November Cook Inlet averaged 16,198 bpd, up 2% from October volumes
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 547,687 barrels per day in December, up 0.6 percent from a November average of 544,221, but down 1.6 percent from a December 2016 average of 556,681 bpd. The biggest month-over-month increases were both at ConocoPhillips Alaska-operated fields: Alpine was up 7 percent and Kuparuk was up 2.22 percent.
Volumes associated with the BP Exploration (Alaska)-operated Prudhoe Bay and Lisburne fields were both down month-over-month, Lisburne by 2.21 percent and Prudhoe by 1.15 percent.
Information for December comes from the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Tax Division which consolidates North Slope oil production by major facilities rather than reporting individual fields, providing 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.
Alpine, Kuparuk Alpine production, which includes satellites at Fiord, Nanuq and Qannik, averaged 67,928 bpd in December, up 7 percent, 4,412 bpd, from a November average of 63,516, and up 11.5 percent from a December 2016 average of 60,927 bpd. AOGCC data for November show the majority of Alpine production, 84 percent, coming from the main field, which includes volumes from the CD5 drill site, which the company brought online in the fall of 2015. In 2016 the company announced the expansion of CD5 from 15 to 33 wells, with first production from the new wells expected in the third quarter of 2017.
Volumes shown for the Kuparuk River unit averaged 147,079 bpd in December, up 2.2 percent, 3,195, from a November average of 143,884, and up 4.1 percent from a December 2016 average of 141,287 bpd. Kuparuk volumes include satellite production from Meltwater, Tabasco, Tarn and West Sak, along with the Eni-operated Nikaitchuq field and the Caelus Alaska-operated Oooguruk field.
AOGCC data show Nikaitchuq averaged 19,018 bpd in November, down 3.8 percent, 748 bpd, from an October average of 19,766 bpd, while Oooguruk averaged 13,017 bpd, up 8.2 percent, 988 bpd, from an October average of 12,029 bpd. Both fields are down some 18 percent from November 2016 volumes.
Prudhoe, Lisburne BP-operated Prudhoe averaged 307,778 bpd in December, down 1.2 percent, 3,578 bpd, from a November average of 311,356, and down 6.7 percent from a December 2016 average of 344,880 bpd.
Prudhoe volumes reported by the Tax Division include 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 Northstar fields. Starting in October, the division also rolled in volumes from the Hilcorp Alaska-operated Endicott field (including satellite production at Eider, Minke and Sag Delta), Badami, operated by Glacier Oil and Gas subsidiary Savant Alaska, and the ExxonMobil Production-operated Point Thomson field.
AOGCC data show Milne Point averaged 17,907 bpd in November, down 4.4 percent, 832 bpd, from an October average of 18,738 bpd, and down 10.2 percent from a November 2016 average of 19,944, while Northstar averaged 8,306 bpd in November, up 2.1 percent, 168 bpd, from an October average of 8,138 bpd, and up 61.6 percent from a November 2016 average of 5,140 bpd.
Badami averaged 778 bpd in November, down 5 percent, 41 bpd, from an October average of 819 bpd. And down 14.3 percent from a November 2016 average of 909 bpd.
Point Thomson averaged 9,575 bpd in November, up 27.8 percent from 7,492 bpd in October, and up 448.9 percent from a November 2016 average of 1,745. The 9,575 bpd is the highest monthly average since Point Thomson came online in April 2016 and the closest it has come on a monthly average to meeting its facility capacity of 10,000 bpd.
BP-operated Lisburne, a part of Greater Prudhoe Bay, averaged 24,902 bpd in December, down 2.2 percent from a November average of 25,465. Lisburne volumes include Niakuk, Point McIntyre and Raven.
Cook Inlet AOGCC data show Cook Inlet crude oil production averaged 16,198 bpd in November, up 1.9 percent from an October average of 15,889 bpd.
The largest month-over-month per-barrel and percent increase was at Hilcorp Alaska’s Granite Point field, which averaged 3,189 bpd in November, up 36.7 percent, 856 bpd, from an October average of 2,333 bpd.
BlueCrest’s Hansen field, the Cosmopolitan project, averaged 269 bpd in November, up 16.3 percent, 38 bpd, from an October average of 232 bpd.
There was also an increase at Hilcorp’s Middle Ground Shoal field, which averaged 1,568 bpd in November, up 0.9 percent, 14 bpd, from an October average of 1,554 bpd.
All other Cook Inlet fields were down, month-over-month. The Glacier Oil and Gas-operated Redoubt Shoal field averaged 827 bpd in November, down 29.9 percent, 353 bpd, from an October average of 1,180 bpd.
Hilcorp’s Beaver Creek field, the inlet’s smallest, averaged 123 bpd in November, down 6 percent, 8 bpd, from an October average of 131. Hilcorp’s McArthur River field, the inlet’s largest, averaged 5,380 bpd, down 3.1 percent, 175 bpd, from an October average of 5,555 bpd.
Glacier’s West McArthur River field averaged 1,178 bpd in November, down 2 percent from an October average of 1,202 bpd.
Hilcorp’s Swanson River field averaged 1,735 bpd, down 1.2 percent, 22 bpd, from an October average of 1,757, and Hilcorp’s Trading Bay averaged 1,929 bpd, down 0.8 percent, 16 bpd, from an October average of 1,945 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
|
