Project Profile
Location: North Slope Borough, Alaska, USA
Production: 230,000 barrels per day
Peak Production: 322,000 bopd (1992)
Area: 170,000 acres
Start-up Year: December 1981
The Kuparuk oil field, located in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States, is the second largest oil field in North America by area. It produces approximately 230,000 barrels per day (approximately 1.1×107 t/a) of oil and is estimated to have 2 billion barrels (320×106 m3) of recoverable oil reserves. It is named for the Kuparuk River.
The Kuparuk River Field is about 40 miles west of Prudhoe Bay, and was discovered in 1969. Production began in 1981 and increased to a record rate of 322,000 barrels per day in 1992. Kuparuk reached a milestone in July 2005 when cumulative production reached 2 billion barrels. Drill pads were reduced from 65-acre pads (the original Prudhoe Bay design) to about 11-acre drill sites at Kuparuk. More than 1,150 wells have been drilled with more development wells in coiled tube drilling sidetracks planned. Kuparuk has threeCentral Processing Facilities (CPF), a Seawater Treatment Plant (STP), plus 47 drill sites. ConocoPhillips and its co-venturers at Kuparuk have invested billions of dollars to develop
Kuparuk and implement programs to optimise oil recovery since its start up.
Kuparuk production is currently enhanced through the use of peripheral and infill drilling, water injection, alternating water and gas injection (IWAG) as well as water alternating miscible gas injection (MWAG). Some 200 MMscf/d of gas is re-injected into the Kuparuk, Tarn and Meltwater pools and some 650,000 barrels of water are injected into Kuparuk and the satellite pools every day. In May 2009, the CDR2-AC purpose-built coiled tubing drilling (CTD) rig successfully initiated operations at Kuparuk to increase oil recovery. Since startup, the rig has delivered impressive performance and is allowing ConocoPhillips tomore economically deliver millions of barrels of oil reserves.
Operators:
ConocoPhillips: Operator with 55.3% interest
BP Exploration: 39.2% interest
Chevron Texaco: 4.9% interest
ExxonMobil: 0.6% interest