SitNews - Stories in the News - Ketchikan, Alaska

USGS Estimates 3.6 Billion Barrels of Oil in Central North Slope

Assessment Also Includes Estimate for 8.9 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas

 

February 04, 2020
Tuesday PM


(SitNews) - One of the most productive areas in the world for oil remains rich in the resource, according to the latest USGS assessment. The USGS estimates 3.6 billion barrels of oil and 8.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas conventional resources in Alaska’s Central North Slope. This assessment does not include discoveries made by industry between 2013 and 2017.

“Alaska is synonymous with energy, and this assessment just reinforces that,” said USGS Director Jim Reilly. “The State of Alaska and its industry partners have responsibly produced billions of barrels of oil from Prudhoe Bay, and we think there are still billions more in this region that can be produced.”

jpg USGS Estimates 3.6 Billion Barrels of Oil in Central North Slope

Oil-industry base camp at Galbraith Lake.
Credit: David Houseknecht, USGS. Public domain

The assessment consists of six assessment units that range from significant oil resources to significant natural gas resources. Although the USGS assessed this region in 2005, increases in geologic knowledge and understanding of the rocks and resource potential allowed the USGS to focus more specifically on the six assessment units included in this estimate.

Alaska’s Central North Slope has long been known to be rich in oil and gas resources. The assessment area hosts most of the producing oil and gas fields in Arctic Alaska, and the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaska Pipeline spans most of the region.

The supergiant Prudhoe Bay field is within the assessed area, which lies between the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to the west, the Brooks Range to the south and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the east.

jpg Badami pipeline, somewhere between Deadhorse and Badami. 

Badami pipeline, somewhere between Deadhorse and Badami. 
Credit: David Houseknecht, USGS. Public domain

Most of the lands in the Central North Slope are owned by the State of Alaska and Alaskan Native Corporations.

The resources estimated in this report are undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional resources. Conventional resources are those that have collected into discrete accumulations that can be produced using traditional production techniques. These are in contrast to continuous resources, which are those spread throughout a rock layer and typically require enhanced recovery techniques such as hydraulic fracturing to produce.

Undiscovered resources are those that have been estimated to exist based on geology and other data, but have not yet been proven to exist by drilling or other means. Technically recoverable resources are those that can be produced using today’s standard industry practices and technology. This is different from reserves, which are those quantities of oil and gas that are currently profitable to produce.

 

 

On the Web:

The new assessment of the Alaska Central North Slope can be found here

 

Edited By Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

USGS
www.usgs.gov

Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.



Send a letter to the editor@sitnews.us

Contact the Editor

SitNews ©2020
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

 Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews are considered protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper freelance writers and subscription services.

E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us

Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.