Alliance Link Magazine Fall 2025

North Slope oil output buoyed by new projects

hoe Bay field and adjacent to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Pantheon completed its new Dub- he-1 well in late July to test an earlier discovery. The well was drilled to a 8,699-foot vertical depth and com- pleted in mid-August. It confirmed a 565-foot-thick column of oil that was 26% larger than the company’s estimate at the start of the well. Denver-based Armstrong Oil and Gas is meanwhile expected to con- tinue testing on an oil discovery made last winter east of Prudhoe Bay. Armstrong’s find, made with Apache Corporation, its partner, is near the existing Badami pipeline built east from Prudhoe Bay to the small Badami oil field and larger Point Thomson gas and condensate field, which are producing. Alaska North Slope production increased in August over July with the completion of summer facili- ty maintenance. One field, Alpine, was still down for 10 days in August, however, as ConocoPhillips, its own- er and operator, continued planned facility work. Overall, North Slope production averaged 417,180 barrels per day in August, up from 387,531 bar- rels per day on average in July due to the facility maintenance down- time. Production is still below the typical North Slope average of about 480,000 barrels per day. Summer is usually a low-produc- tion cycle on the North Slope. Fields produce more during cold winter months because production plants operate more efficiently than during warmer summer months. Output was up at two of the major producing fields on the North Slope

but were down in two, the Alpine and Kuparuk River fields. The Prudhoe Bay field, largest on the slope, averaged 265,741 barrels per day in August, up from an av- erage of 212,596 barrels per day in July. Prudhoe is operated by Hilcorp Energy, which also owns about one- third of the field with partners Con - ocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. The Kuparuk River field, sec - ond-largest on the Slope, was down slightly in August, averaging 110,347 barrels per day compared with 166,394 barrels per day in July. Con- ocoPhillips is the owner and opera- tor at Kuparuk, which is just west of the Prudhoe Bay field. At Alpine, the farthest west pro- ducing field on the Slope, average production dipped to 23,448 barrels per day in August compared with a 42,896 barrels per day average in July due to the several days of pro- duction facilities being offline during the month. Daily production rates returned to normal later in August. Cono- coPhillips is the owner and opera- tor at the Alpine Field. Facilities in the field, which is on State of Alaska lands, also processes raw crude oil from two producing pads, GMT-1 and GMT-2, that are in the federal National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) several miles west of Alpine as well as small “satellite” accumu- lations south of the field. However, ConocoPhillips’ new Willow field, which is further west and larger, will have its own plant on site to process oil and gas pro- duced fluids.

Production stays stable amid slight historical decline Production from the older “leg- acy” fields of the North Slope is generally stable but also gradual- ly declining as their reservoirs age. However, two new fields now in construction — ConocoPhillips’ Wil- low and Pikka, with Santos Ltd. and partner Repsol – will make substan- tial new contributions of oil when they are completed. Pikka will be completed in early 2026 ahead of its original schedule of mid-year. The field is expected to produce 80,000 barrels per day in its first phase of development. When phase one production begins, Santos will move into its phase two devel- opment, which would add more pro- duction. Modules for Pikka were delivered this summer by barge from Canada, while a seawater treatment plant is being transported from Indonesia, where it was built. Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips says it is on schedule to begin production at Willow in 2029, with production estimated at 180,000 barrels per day. The company is now completing Willow’s operators’ center and has a large construction camp in place to support year-round work to com- plete the field. New projects on the slope may bring even more production. One is in the central North Slope where U.K.-based Pantheon Resources is evaluating a find south of the Prud -

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