Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Petroleum Exploration and Development
Appendix C: Petroleum Exploration and Development
Pages 167-182
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From page 167... ...
They examined and sampled the Cape Simpson seepages and located several additional sites that had been rumored to occur along the Arctic coast. Reports of seepages along the coast at Skull Cliff, Dease Inlet, Cape Simpson, Fish Creek, Brownlow Point, Manning Point, and Umiat Mountain were confirmed.
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From page 168... ...
de K Leffingwell mapped the Arctic coast east of Barrow and traversed inland over much of what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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From page 169... ...
Trimetrogon aerial photography covered all of National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and special vertical aerial photography captured over 70,000 mi2 (181,000 km2) of the reserve and adjacent areas.
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From page 170... ...
In 1966 ARCO drilled Susie No.l, and that was followed closely by two test wells near the Colville River delta, all east of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In 1967 ARCO began drilling a test well near Prudhoe Bay that was announced in 1968 as the discovery well of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the largest in North America.
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From page 171... ...
1976, the Naval Petroleum Production Act and the 1974 to 1985 Exploration of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska In 1974, the oil embargo and the discovery at Prudhoe Bay renewed interest in NPR-4 and the U.S. Navy began a new program of geophysical and drilling exploration along the Barrow-Prudhoe trend, the so-called Barrow Arch.
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From page 172... ...
INDUSTRY OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION ON THE NORTH SLOPE OF ALASKA AND THE ADJACENT BEAUFORT SEA After the completion of the Navy exploration program, the North Slope remained off limits to the petroleum industry until 1958 when lands were finally made available for industry evaluation by the federal government between the Canning and Colville rivers. At the same time, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was set aside to protect the northeast corner of Alaska for its wildlife, wilderness, and recreational values.
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From page 173... ...
Exploration Drilling Based on leasing, geological field work, and seismic acquisition the industry began a program of exploration drilling in 1963 and 11 dry wells were drilled prior to the Prudhoe Bay State No. 1 (AOGCC, unpublished data, 2001)
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From page 174... ...
These are the Colville-Canning area/shallow state waters, the Beaufort Sea OCS, National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The onshore areas frequently contain some combination of state/Native or federal/Native land ownership.
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From page 175... ...
This area has been and will continue to be the primary exploration grounds until or unless large, attractive areas of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and/or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge become available for leasing. Fecleral OCS, Beaufort Sea The Beaufort OCS lands were unavailable to the petroleum industry until the joint state/federal lease sale of 1979.
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From page 176... ...
The existing seismic grid extends across state waters and ties into onshore wells or wells in the shallow near-shore portions of the Beaufort Sea. The acquisition area extends from near Point Barrow on the west to near the Canada border on the east.
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From page 177... ...
The second phase of federal exploration did not yield any significant discoveries but did provide a wealth of information for future operations. Leasing The federal leasing program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska commenced in 1982 with two lease sales in January and May.
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From page 178... ...
This would include the Marsh Creek Anticline and areas to the east. Data Acquisition Data acquisition in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been largely restricted to geological field parties in the Brooks Range, south of the 1002 Area, and to the limited seismic acquisition program conducted under government oversight in 1984 and 1985.
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From page 179... ...
This has afforded those companies with Native corporation exploration agreements the opportunity to drill and evaluate areas that are not otherwise assessable and are off-limits to the rest of the industry. These wells have been drilled on inholdings within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as well as in the foothills of the Brooks Range south of the state acreage in the Colville-Canning area.
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From page 180... ...
The probability of finding large Prudhoe Bay- or Endicott-type fields in the northern portion of the Colville-Canning area or in the shallow Beaufort Sea is low. National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Early exploration efforts by the Navy and USGS severely damaged the hopes of finding Prudhoe Bay- and Lisburne/Endicott-style plays along the westward extension of the Barrow Arch into the National Petroleum ReserveAlaska.
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From page 181... ...
Oil seeps occur at several localities, there are numerous exposures of oil stained sandstone, and several accumulations abut the area on the west and may possibly extend into the refuge. Several high-quality oil source rocks are known to be present within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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From page 182... ...
The second prediction at Prudhoe Bay was that the field contained 9.6 billion bbl (403.2 billion gallons) of recoverable oil.
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