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OIL & GAS
t’s easy to take oil for granted in Alaska. The average citizen knows enough to be grateful that money from petroleum development is the reason the statewide income tax was abolished and why the Permanent Fund was established, sharing its dividends with residents each year. Beyond that, anyone not connected to the industry can be confused or overwhelmed by the terminology. Well, here’s some whelmable knowledge to increase appreciation for Alaska’s richest resource—and sharpen skills for pub trivia, as a bonus. True or False: All of Alaska’s oil and gas resources are located near the northern coast of Alaska, often referred to as the North Slope.
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False
NonTrivial Trivia How well do you know Alaska’s oil and gas industry? By Connor Lockmiter
88 | May 2022
Oil production fields located near the north coast of Alaska are generally referred to as the “North Slope,” but it is not the only oil and gas resource in Alaska. Cook Inlet is Alaska’s second commercial oil region—or rather, first. The Swanson River oil field northeast of Nikiski was discovered in 1957 and is still producing today. Most wells in Cook Inlet are underwater, though, beneath ten offshore oil platforms and two offshore natural gas platforms. True or False: The terms “North Slope” and “Prudhoe Bay” are interchangeable, referring to any oil coming from Alaska’s Arctic region. False Prudhoe Bay is the name of one unit on the North Slope—yes, the largest and the site of the Prudhoe Bay Operations Center, the central camp for thousands of workers. However, ten other units are currently producing. Milne Point, northwest of Prudhoe Bay, is another onshore unit operated by Hilcorp, which also operates Northstar and Duck Island, just offshore from Prudhoe Bay. ConocoPhillips owns nearly all of the Kuparuk River, Colville River, and Greater Mooses Tooth units, west of Prudhoe Bay. ExxonMobil owns Point Thomson, to the east. That leaves Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq, two offshore units owned by Italian oil company ENI, and the Badami unit owned by Savant Alaska. Another
ten units are designated on the North Slope but are not currently producing anything. True or False: Three companies control more than half of the land leased for oil production in Alaska. True Alaska has issued leases for approximately 3.2 million acres for oil production. Three entities associated with ConocoPhillips control 566,870 acres. Two entities associated with Hilcorp control 759,743 acres. An entity associated with Oil Search, recently merged with the Santos group, controls 540,328 acres. Combined, these three companies control approximately 55 percent of the currently issued leases. True or False: The Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) crosses three mountain ranges to bring oil from the North Slope to the shipping terminal in Valdez. True TAPS, constructed from 1974 to 1977, stretches 800 miles from the North Slope to Prince William Sound. The pipeline crosses the Brooks Range, the Alaska Range, and the Chugach Range. It also crosses 34 rivers and nearly 500 smaller streams. True or False: Oil production flowing through TAPS today is approximately one-third of the flow rate that the pipeline had at its peak. False It’s less than that. The average throughput of oil through TAPS in February 2022 was 501,981 barrels per day. The highest daily throughput was 2,145,297 barrels in a single day on January 14, 1988. That makes today’s production approximately one-quarter of the throughput that the pipeline experienced at its maximum. True or False: It took twenty-two years after the discovery of oil on the North Slope before oil production began. False On March 13, 1968, the Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil and Refining Company announced the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay.
Alaska Business www.akbizmag.com
