ANS production down <Alaska North Slope Oil}

Petroleum News ^ | Week of December 18, 2011 | Kristen Nelson

[TrumpisRight]

No... Make up the lost flow with oil in the lower 48 so we have backup. Take the Alaskan pipeline down, upgrade then bring it back online. Also stop exporting gasoline which will help.

[rodguy911]

I looked into it once and was told the pipeline gets closed down in the vicinity of 300,000 barrels or less.

This is so sad when there is so much oil up there and we are not allowed to drill for it!! Let's hope we knock the regime out next year.There's lots riding on it.

Those who think Keystone will actually get started in the US as zero has promised are being duped once again.Zero will never actually allow it to happen,IMHO. He will come up with excuse after excuse why he can't get it started,that's a promise. We have been rolled again.

[El Laton Caliente]

That was the best quick map I could find. By survey drilling there is a MUCH larger field in ANWR than Prudoe. The Naval Oil Researve covers most of the area surrounding and south of Barrow and it has several Prudoe size fields. Preliminary exploration in the Artic Ocean has found fields out more that 50 miles almost everywhere they looked.

None of it is in production.

[thackney]

The Naval Oil Researve covers most of the area surrounding and south of Barrow and it has several Prudoe size fields.

The Naval Oil Reserve became the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska. I was on the early design team for what was to be the first production site drill site, CD5 for ConocoPhillips, an expansion of the Alpine Central Production facility back in 2005.

Because of that experience, I've followed it rather closely, even getting to review some logs from a few exploratory drilling. I've never seen any claim of a Prudhoe size field. Sorry but I have to doubt that claim.

What has been found has been extremely light and high in value, but nothing massive in size. The CD5 drill site has been held up with various permitting issues, mostly around the bridge over the Nigliq Channel of the Colville River Delta. We had a FR thread about that last week:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2818595/posts

[thackney]

Make up the lost flow with oil in the lower 48

The problem discussed here is not the amount of oil in the lower 48. It is the amount of oil flowing through the Alaskan pipeline.

Take the Alaskan pipeline down, upgrade then bring it back online.

Are you suggesting we take down the Alaskan pipeline then replace it with a smaller pipeline? What do you mean by upgrade?

Why not open up more areas to production and get the taxes at a more competitive level instead of just giving up and accepting a declining position?

[thackney]

Preliminary exploration in the Artic Ocean has found fields out more that 50 miles almost everywhere they looked.

None of it is in production.

Some of it is in production. North Star is a man-island producing offshore.

The Milni Point field extending offshore is in production from extend horizontal reach drilling.

The Oooguruk field extends out offshore but is produced from onshore drill pad with the horizontal drilling exetending out miles offshore.

BP has delayed the liberty field but has built the rig and has begun development of this similar design by planning to set the world records in extended horzontal drilling reach around 8 miles.

There certainly is great potential for far more. Shell has had some delays has received some approval for their drilling Offshore North Slope with their large arctic rig, the Frontier Discoverer.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/200025-interior-approves-shells-arctic-drilling-plan

[El Laton Caliente]

North Star is also offshore, but they are drilling what in the gulf would amount to bay or near shore rigs. The deeper areas are not in production.

ANWR was set up as an oil drilling area, but they have never allowed production.

[thackney]

The deeper areas are not in production.

The deeper areas are a long, long way out. That flat north slope continues where the ocean starts.

ANWR was set up as an oil drilling area

The coastal plain was. There has been only one well ever drilled there but the results are a tightly held secret.

I certainly agree the Alaskan North Slope, on and offshore, holds great potential that we have only started accessing.