Posted on 06/12/2015 5:49:05 AM PDT by thackney
Alaska's crude oil production has declined from 1.8 million barrels per day (MMb/d) in 1991 to 0.5 MMb/d in 2014, and it is expected to continue declining through 2040. Almost 75% of Alaska's crude oil production from 1990 to 2012 was from the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River fields in the central North Slope, which respectively produced 4.9 billion and 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil over this period.
Crude oil production in Alaska is sensitive to the challenging environment—including variable ice conditions and limited time without ice coverage—as well as pipeline economics. However, recent conditional approval granted to Royal Dutch Shell to begin exploratory drilling in the Burger Prospect in the Chukchi Sea may help to offset future declines in crude oil production from other state and federally managed resources in the region.
Current Alaska oil and natural gas activity is concentrated in three main regions: North Slope Offshore, Central North Slope, and South Alaska.
- The North Slope Offshore encompasses the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Except for the Northstar field, which spans both federal and state waters in the Beaufort Sea, most of the production, including the Nikaitchuq field and other smaller producing fields, is located in state waters in the Beaufort Sea.
- The Central North Slope includes the Alpine, Kuparuk River, Milne Point, Prudhoe Bay, and West Sak fields, as well as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), there are 212 oil and natural gas leases in the NPR-A but no producing units. Oil and natural gas exploration and production are not allowed in the ANWR.
- In South Alaska, ongoing oil and natural gas activity is located in the Cook Inlet area.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates that the Chukchi Sea, off the northwest coast of Alaska, contains 2 to 40 billion barrels of unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources and 10 to 210 trillion cubic feet of unproved technically recoverable natural gas resources. Technically recoverable resources include oil and natural gas that can be produced based on current technology, industry practice, and geologic knowledge. More than half of Alaska's unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources are in the North Slope Offshore.
The unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the North Slope Offshore (23.8 billion barrels) are comparable to the unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the Bakken formation (22.8 billion barrels) and more than twice the unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the Eagle Ford formation (10.3 billion barrels).
Interesting. I am sure the operators of the TransAlaskan pipeline would like to add more into it to improve efficiency.
Have you seen anywhere what capacity it is right now and what type of fixed costs it takes to run it?
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates that the Chukchi Sea, off the northwest coast of Alaska, contains 2 to 40 billion barrels of unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources and 10 to 210 trillion cubic feet of unproved technically recoverable natural gas resources. Technically recoverable resources include oil and natural gas that can be produced based on current technology, industry practice, and geologic knowledge. More than half of Alaska's unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources are in the North Slope Offshore. The unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the North Slope Offshore (23.8 billion barrels) are comparable to the unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the Bakken formation (22.8 billion barrels) and more than twice the unproved technically recoverable crude oil resources in the Eagle Ford formation (10.3 billion barrels).
At peak flow in 1988, 11 pump stations helped to move 2.1 million barrels of oil a day.
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS
Since then, many pump stations were shut down or put on backup status. The four stations that normally operate were modernized during the Electrification & Automation project, I helped in a minor way with review and correction of drawings in 2006~2007 from SNC until my company took the project over for the electrical work to complete and As-Built.
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS/PipelineOperations/PumpStations
The new pumps and drives are not designed to move 2 MMBPD, but are modular in design and the entire system is capable of moving that amount again with some significant expansion dollars.
In 2014, the average throughput for the year was 513,441 BPD
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS/PipelineOperations/Throughput
I’m not current on cost to run. More barrels per day would significantly reduce the cost per barrel, but also require significant investment dollars to complete the upgrades. The Electrification & Automation project was are rather dismal grouping of frantic sexual activity.
In many ways, the review of the execution and planning is a great educational tool of how not to run a project. When working on a Masters in Project Management, the director of the program was trying to get someone at retirement age in Alaska to help put that together. He needed someone informed in the Alaska Oil/Gas work, but it would be a career ending assignment, hence retirement age.
I did not realize that it is only about 25% of what it used to do. There is a cost on large capital items so severely underutilized. I bet fixed costs to run it almost regardless of throughput are way over 50% of all costs.
Lessons learned are always helpful to improve, painful as it may be to review and reflect.
I saw an example of this years ago when a major oil discovery was made and a classic example of how not to delineate, develop and produce was made. Caused ultimate recoveries to be maybe half of what they otherwise had been. Those who made mistakes refused to indict themselves, but found fallguys to take the hit.
Likely cost the company $2-4 billion.
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