Page 2 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 3 Page 4 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

Congratulations to ConocoPhillips, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil for 25 Years at Kuparuk Alaska Frontier Constructors, Inc. y PO Box 224889 y Anchorage AK 99522 y (907) 562-5303 Phone y (907) 562-5309 Fax Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 5 A message from Jim Bowles JUDY PATRICK JUDY President, ConocoPhillips Alaska

lease join me in congratulating Kuparuk went on to receive the Kuparuk on the occasion of its 25th Interstate Oil and Gas Compact P anniversary. The first production from Commission Environmental Stewardship the Kuparuk Oil Field took place on award, and become a proud member of the December 13, 1981.Though it was once Alaska Green Star program. These national thought to be a marginal field, Kuparuk and local recognitions are all symbols of the went on to surpass its 2 billion barrels pro- outstanding efforts by our employees and duced milestone and is still going strong. contractors who have made environmental Kuparuk’s history and cur- consciousness part of daily rent operations are distin- routine at Kuparuk. This guished by technology,envi- grassroots effort has grown ronmental stewardship and and evolved to include the dedicated people who ConocoPhillips’ support of work in the field. conservation and access pro- After the investment of grams supporting key fish 25 years of technology and and wildlife habitats in Agency Award for Pollution Prevention. This innovation, the Kuparuk field has proven to Alaska. was the first time such a prestigious award be a legacy asset. Over time, the infrastruc- In addition, Kuparuk has led the way in was given to an Alaska company and it was ture has expanded and we’ve been success- the arctic technology that has enhanced the the first time the award was given to an oil- ful in developing additional production field’s recoverable resources far beyond field. from the smaller satellite fields of Tarn, what was predicted at startup. These new Kuparuk went on to receive the Tabasco, Meltwater, and West Sak. technologies that have been instrumental in Interstate Oil and Gas Compact It’s exciting to think that Kuparuk has the development of the area viscous oil Commission Environmental Stewardship only reached the midpoint and now we’re resources. Kuparuk’s future plans include award, and become a proud member of the working on the next 25 years. Kuparuk has the continued development of the large Alaska Green Star program. These national long been a pioneer in the development of West Sak heavy oil satellite,the redevelop- and local recognitions are all symbols of the new technology and a leader in environ- ment of the Kuparuk “A”sands using coiled outstanding efforts by our employees and mental stewardship. tubing and extended reach drilling tech- contractors who have made environmental In 1999, the Kuparuk River Unit was pre- nologies, and another look at the Ugnu consciousness part of daily routine at sented with the Environmental Protection development. Kuparuk. This grassroots effort has grown Agency Award for Pollution Prevention. This Kuparuk has long been a pioneer in the and evolved to include ConocoPhillips’ sup- was the first time such a prestigious award development of new technology and a port of conservation and access programs was given to an Alaska company and it was leader in environmental stewardship. supporting key fish and wildlife habitats in the first time the award was given to an oil- In 1999, the Kuparuk River Unit was pre- Alaska. field. sented with the Environmental Protection see BOWLES page 7 Page 6 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field CONTENTS

24 Kuparuk considered for VPP star

27 Emergency responders keep skills sharp 8 28 Two rigs drilling West Sak 5 A message from Jim Bowles at 1J pad

8 At 25, Kuparuk at midpoint 27

A remarkable workforce 11 Discovery to start-up Kuparuk safety continues 15 H1 Kuparuk discovery made by to improve 31 Early 1980s: Kuparuk build Sinclair at Ugnu No. 1 11 continues H2 Getting there and other challenges 1979-81 45 Tarn: Satellite development begins H6 Production begins 3 months early 48 Meltwater discovered, in production H6 Early wells were Kuparuk 16 Environmental studies formation, in spite from the get-go of names

20 Kuparuk Earth Energy H7 Newer technology 52 Partners Recycled at Kuparuk

44 Kuparuk timeline Original owners 22 ULSD plant going in H7 at Kuparuk in '08 still represented 52 Kuparuk field animals and birds Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 7 Kuparuk by the numbers Camps Eggs (weekly) ...... 9,600 (800 dozen) Peak occupancy ...... 1,208 Cups of coffee and juice (weekly) ...... 52,000 Beds available ...... 1,279 (KOC 551, KCC 643 and KIC 80) Prime rib (one meal) ...... 850 pounds Avg. daily occupancy (1998) ...... 1,042 Steak (one meal) ...... 600 pounds Offices on KOC pad ...... 298 Total food per day ...... 4 1/2 tons (shipping weight) Hallways ...... 2 miles in main camp area Kuparuk 25 Roads & Pads Released January 2007 Dining Pick-ups ...... 319 Brought to you by ConocoPhillips Dinners served (weekly) ...... 5,500 Heavy equipment ...... 125 Alaska in conjunction with Petroleum Breakfasts served (weekly) ...... 3,600 Non-mobile ...... 299 News Donuts and pastries (weekly) ...... 25,000 Tires replaced (annually) ...... 1,500 PETROLEUM NEWS Sandwiches (weekly) ...... 14,000 Windshields replaced (annually) ...... 232 PO Box 231651 Potatoes (weekly) ...... 1 ton 15/40 motor oil ...... 38,700 gallons Anchorage, AK 99523-1651 Vehicle PM’s w/oil change ...... 10,327 Apples (weekly) ...... 1/2 ton Phone: (907) 522-9469 Bananas (weekly) ...... 1 ton Gallons of diesel used (annually) ...... 7.8 million gallons Fax: (907) 522-9583 Watermelon (weekly) ...... 1/2 ton Miles of roads ...... 123 www.petroleumnews.com Milk (weekly) ...... 900 gallons Acres of gravel pad ...... 852 Petroleum News magazine staff KAY CASHMAN • Publisher & Executive Editor continued from page 5 support the communities where we live. MARY LASLEY • Chief Financial Officer I’m proud of their commitment to safety KRISTEN NELSON • Editor-in-chief BOWLES and this year Kuparuk will receive its OSHA SUSAN CRANE • Advertising Director STEVEN MERRITT • Production Director I’m sure there are many stories about VPP Star certification for those efforts. Many of TOM KEARNEY • Advertising Design Kuparuk, but there seems to be a common the people who work at Kuparuk are your neighbors. They volunteer their time and ener- TIM KIKTA • Copy Editor thread through our history,that’s our people. MICHAEL NOVELLI • Circulation Director With an average winter population of more gy at home as well as work. It’s the dedication Cover photo by Judy Patrick. than 1,200 workers, Kuparuk has become its of these men and women that make me so optimistic about the next 25 years. Cover design by Steven Merritt own community whose people reach out Printed by Camai Printing, across this great state. Each year the field gen- Our past, present, and future successes are Anchorage, Alaska erates thousands of Alaska jobs and millions in a result of the innovation, commitment and state revenues, which benefit every Alaskan and passion shared by these men and women.

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BMBTLBCQDPN Page 8 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field At 25, Kuparuk at midpoint Field began producing in December 1981, has conventional resources, vast amounts of viscous oil yet to develop

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

he Kuparuk River field has been in production for more than 25 years, T since Dec. 13, 1981. It has a lot more anniversaries to go. TURNER DALE COURTESY “We don’t feel we’re halfway through the field’s life yet, even though we’re at the 25-year anniversary,”says Paul Dubuisson, manager of North Slope oper- ations for Conoco Phillips Alaska. Jim Bowles, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said:“Today the field continues to be an important legacy asset to our company.” “Kuparuk has played a key role in the development of ConocoPhillips’ technol- ogy in many areas,”Bowles said.“Our key to long-term growth at Greater Kuparuk Three rigs, two Doyon and one Nordic, drilling West Sak wells at 1J pad in September 2006. will be found in the development of the heavy and viscous oils found at West Sak horizon,”Storaker said. enhanced oil recovery in the existing Kuparuk production conventional oil and the Ugnu.” Kuparuk continues to expand Georg Storaker, ConocoPhillips Alaska production. vice president of operations and develop- “Like most large fields it continues to Three-D seismic shot at the field two ment, said “Kuparuk is far from retire- expand,”Dubuisson said.There’s “a lot of winters ago allowed the company to ment.” potential” in both the West Sak viscous identify “quite a bit”of development “Leadership in innovation and expand- oil and the older, more conventional potential in the existing field, he said, ing the use of today’s technology could reservoirs at Kuparuk.Technology has places where the waterflood and lead to the redevelopment of the unlocked “a tremendous amount — but enhanced oil recovery project can be Kuparuk ‘A’ Sands using coiled tubing and there’s even more there.” fine tuned, based on “knowing more extended reach drilling technologies. That future lies in two areas, about the geology from the 3-D seismic.” Dubuisson said: infill drilling and “There are more opportunities on the see MIDPOINT page 9 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 9 continued from page 8 “So I think we’ll probably be installing day.” additional water injection capacity over Lineberger was working for Conoco at MIDPOINT time.”Additional power will probably also Milne Point in the early 1990s, when they The 3-D also identified more than 100 be needed in Kuparuk’s existing facilities were just starting to develop the West infill locations which can be drilled over over time. Sak equivalent, Schrader Bluff. the next four or five years, some of that “And if we had a 500-barrel-a-day well, around satellites. Viscous development we were ecstatic,”Lineberger said.“Today, The other area is heavy oil, with bil- ‘well into the future’ 5,000 barrels a day is not uncommon for lions of barrels of West Sak and Ugnu But the long-term future at Kuparuk is some of the initial rates we get from known, because ConocoPhillips drills the West Sak formation. these tri-lateral West Sak wells.” through those shallower accommoda- “Obviously the big development, well Technologies such as horizontal drilling, tions to reach Kuparuk oil. into the future, is the … viscous oil.” multi-lateral drilling and learning to man- Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips’ West Sak development is under way at age solids have pushed us toward a great Greater Kuparuk operations manager, Kuparuk, and that development could future in West Sak, he said. said that in addition to two Doyon rigs, move “further up in the West Sak to the ConocoPhillips has two rigs working there are two Nordic rigs at Kuparuk. shallower, colder oils.”Above West Sak on the 1-J pad right now, Dubuisson said, One of the Nordic rigs is “coiled tubing lies Ugnu, which is heavier still, and Doyon 15 and 141. drilling” capable, another “new emerging Dubuisson said a lot of technology needs Pad 1-J is the new pad focused on technology which really helps us exploit to be developed to produce Ugnu,“but West Sak production, he said. Pad 1-E, the reservoir,”he said. Coiled tubing certainly you can envision it in the with a lot of Kuparuk production, is also allows the company to “relatively inex- future,”although there is no timetable for part of overall West Sak development, pensively, very quickly go in and take Ugnu. while 1-J is essentially a “fully dedicated advantage of some of the new seismic “We’re working the technologies now. West Sak drill site.” results and further develop the Kuparuk … You have to do a lot of work to decide field,”Lineberger said. how it would be possible to produce it.” Sand management good More water injection will probably be But at West Sak the change has been Sand production has been one of the required at Kuparuk because with declin- dramatic. problems with West Sak and similar reser- ing oil production “the total fluid produc- “We brought on another well yester- voirs because they are shallower, softer tion tends to go up because of the water day (Dec. 10) making about 3,000 barrels sandstones, not as well consolidated as you produce along with the oil,” a day. … It wasn’t that long ago it would deeper formations.When the oil is pro- Dubuisson said. have been a couple hundred barrels a see MIDPOINT page 10 Page 10 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 9 Lineberger said ConocoPhillips has Commission records show that, through “been able to handle the solids that are the end of November 2006, Kuparuk has MIDPOINT associated with the West Sak production produced almost 2.2 billion barrels of oil: duced, a lot of sand comes with it. with minimal production impacts. … And 2.1 billion barrels from the Kuparuk Dubuisson said he was with Conoco we’re continuing to look at technologies River pool; 79.1 million barrels from before the Milne Point field was sold to that will make life better,”he said, such as Tarn; 25.9 million barrels from West Sak; BP.He wasn’t working on Milne, but was hydro-cyclones and centrifuges, which 12.6 million barrels from Tabasco; 11.1 in Houston when the company started provide “an enhanced separation process million barrels from Meltwater; and 1,606 developing the Schrader Bluff formation which helps separate oil, water and barrels from Ugnu. there some 15 years ago. solids.” The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas “And they told me that they were pro- lists five participating areas in the ducing a lot of sand from these wells. I Facilities operation key Kuparuk River unit: Kuparuk, the main said that’s impossible — you can’t pro- The facilities, however, were designed producing formation at the field, was dis- duce that for very long.” for light oil. covered in 1969 and produces from the “We’ve gotten very good at managing It’s “a testament to the quality of the lower Cretaceous Kuparuk formation at it,”Dubuisson said.“The wells produce folks you have there,”Dubuisson said: about 5,600 feet subsea. some sand initially when you bring them “They’ve taken facilities that were West Sak, discovered in 1971, pro- on, but as you clean them up, the way designed for light oil, and we’ve made duces from the upper Cretaceous West we’ve evolved cleaning up the wells, it some modification, but really it’s been in Sak Sands at about 3,500 feet subsea. goes back to just a very small back- the way they operate them that they’re Tabasco, discovered in 1986, produces ground level.” able to handle that viscous oil without from the middle Cretaceous Nanushuk Initially there is a good deal of sand really any significant difficulty.” Group Tabasco Sand at approximately production, he said.The laterals on the Lineberger said ConocoPhillips is 3,000 feet subsea. wells “are so long, because you’re expos- negotiating commercial agreements with Tarn, discovered in 1991, produces ing so much of the reservoir … as you some third parties — Pioneer,Anadarko from the middle Cretaceous Seabee for- clean those out from the drilling process — “to utilize available capacity within mation Bermuda Sand at 4,376 to 5,990 you get a good bit of sand back.” our infrastructure, which is good for feet. ConocoPhillips has installed facilities everybody.” Meltwater, discovered in 2000, pro- to clean the sand out of the separators, Major facilities at Kuparuk include duces from the middle Cretaceous the equipment that separates the oil from three central processing facilities, the sea- Seabee formation Bermuda/Cairn Sands. the water and gas produced with it.“We water treatment plant, pipelines and Another discovery, Palm, made in can clean out the separators from the pads. 2001, is a Kuparuk C4 interval found to sand we see there … while we’re pro- be in communication with the main ducing.” 47 active drill sites, 2.2 Kuparuk reservoir and developed from a That’s been a learning process over billion in production new Kuparuk pad, 3-S, which came the last two years. Initially “we’d bring a There are 47 active drill sites and online in November 2003. new well on and would see large approximately 1,100 wells at Kuparuk, Core area working interest owners at amounts of sand … for a short period of about half producers and half injection Kuparuk are ConocoPhillips, 52.12468 time; and here lately it’s a one- or two-day wells, Dubuisson said. percent; BP Exploration, 37.02472 per- event.” Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation cent; ExxonMobil 5.8 percent; and Unocal 4.9506 percent. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 11 A remarkable workforce Dubuisson: workforce ‘unique’; Lineberger: they ‘just find ways to get things done’

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

oth Paul Dubuisson, manager of North PATRICK JUDY Slope operations for ConocoPhillips B Alaska, and Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips’ Greater Kuparuk operations manager, use the word remark- able when talking about Kuparuk. And both are talking about the remark- able people who have worked at the field over the last 25 years. Dubuisson, who’s been at Kuparuk for two and a half years, says the people who work for the company at Kuparuk are what strikes him the most:“It’s a remarkable workforce.” “I think it’s unique, in the places that we operate around the world, in terms of the talent and the experience and the cama- raderie.” “It’s a very demanding environment; it’s an unusual location. Lineberger says “it’s been a pretty describe as the Kuparuk SPIRIT really “We have essentially a self-contained city remarkable 25 years” at Kuparuk. kicked in, which has brought about innova- up there.And the fact that it’s been there “It’s amazing that in the early days it was tions and applications of technology that for 25 years is quite an accomplishment.” viewed as a marginal development.What I see WORKFORCE page 12 Page 12 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

Quality, passion of Kuparuk people

JUDY PATRICK JUDY • Vicky Hahn, now at Alpine, was about working at Kuparuk was “the at Kuparuk from 1989 to 2000, with relationships developed with people an 11-month hiatus in town before from all sorts of different back- she was able to swap jobs with a grounds and experience.” slope mom who wanted to be home “They challenged and stretched with her son. me in many ways. I will never forget Hahn says the people were the the times of seriousness as well as most memorable thing. the times of laughter from the people And the project she’s most proud that made my time away from my of was not “position related,”Hahn family enjoyable,”McGarry said. says, but part of her volun- • Alan Schuyler worked teer work at Kuparuk. at Kuparuk from 1984 to “I sat at the Cirque well Kuparuk25 1996, and is now HSE man- blow-out in a Fire response ager at ConocoPhillips Long vehicle for a week as a Beach JV. member of the Fire Brigade “The quality, integrity (it’s since grown up to be a and passion of the people department). Fortunately,” who worked and lived at she related,“that all ended Kuparuk,”was most memo- without need for our emer- rable, he said. continued from page 11 gency assistance.” “I felt that the entire • “The people at community became your Stories from the field WORKFORCE Kuparuk made going to extended family, particularly have really brought us to the point where work everyday fun,”said Joe around the holidays. I we’re 25 years old and we don’t think Leone, who was vice president for remember it as a wonderful place to we’re half-way done.” the Greater Kuparuk Business Unit, work. ...” Lineberger said the cornerstone at 1998-2003, and is now vice president • Jim Short, who worked Kuparuk Kuparuk is “the employees, both company upstream technology for — and at Kuparuk — from 1980 to and contract.”He said they “just find ways ConocoPhillips in Houston.“The 1989, in permitting, environmental to get things done, find ways to make hourly workforce is highly skilled and and safety, and is now at Alpine, said things better, find ways to really develop a experienced, and the technical and what is memorable to him about strong future, both for themselves and as a support staffs are amongst the best in Kuparuk is “the professionalism and place for their children to work.” ConocoPhillips,”he said in an e-mail. expertise of the workforce” and “the Georg Storaker, ConocoPhillips Alaska “There is a great deal of pride in focus on safety, environmental pro- vice president of operations and develop- being part of Kuparuk and in sup- tection and production goals.” ment, agrees. porting the community. He also listed “their understanding “There have been many milestones at “There is also a sense of together- and appreciation of their great Kuparuk over 25 years,”he said.“These ness that was great to be a part of,” responsibilities.”He said “the friendly included: producing more than 2 billion Leone said. atmosphere” was “like having several barrels; receiving the EPA Evergreen Award; • Jerry McGarry, who worked at hundred of your best friends in one the IOGCC Environmental Stewardship Kuparuk with HSE from 2000-2006, place.” Award and the development of the West and is now at the Kenai LNG plant, • Barbara Byrne VanderWende Sak. said what was most memorable see PEOPLE page 13 see WORKFORCE page 13

Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 13 continued from page 12 went to total strangers, such as the spring the Kuparuk PEOPLE River washed out earlier worked on summer studies than expected, stranding a at Kuparuk beginning in young couple and their 6- 1986, and was assigned to week old daughter on the the field as senior environ- Kuparuk side. He was a doc- mental coordinator from toral student collecting 1990-97. spring migration data on She is now an environ- caribou.The young family mental consultant and lives couldn’t even drive into in River Bend, Mont. Kuparuk “as they only had “After I retired, I worked enough gas to get them back two winters for Anadarko on to Deadhorse when the an exploratory well south of bridge was back in.” DS 2K.We were based out of VanderWende related that Kuparuk during the con- Moose Cunningham, the struction and mobilization roads and pads supervisor, phase. Independents do not found them when he was have the infrastructure that doing a road inspection. the North Slope operators “We brought them to have and it is often more dif- camp, arranged for showers ficult to get your job done. I and food.They were very will always remember the nice and, of course, grateful. willingness of my Kuparuk We had some baby formula family to help me and the shipped up from town for Anadarko team out when we them. I’m sure they will hit a snag.” always remember the friend- And sometimes the help ly Kuparuk people.” continued from page 12 hundreds of other things a little bit differently and better, every- WORKFORCE body up there is just energized “However, these milestones in terms of their jobs.” could only be achieved with People have come to enjoy the dedication and perfor- the lifestyle of one or two mance from the men and weeks on, one or two weeks women of Kuparuk. I want to off.“They work their one or thank everyone who has been two weeks, sometimes more, a part of Kuparuk’s history and and they work very long hours. I’m proud to be a part of such And they really enjoy their jobs an outstanding team for the — but then they like their off- future,”Storaker said. time, too,”he said. About 70 percent work two No staleness here weeks on and two weeks off. Dubuisson said he was also There are about 1,100 peo- struck by the innovation. ple working at Kuparuk, 350- When he first got to the 400 of them company people. field, he said he wondered if “About 200 on site”at one time, people who’d been working at Dubuisson said, running the any one location for 20-plus processing facilities, the seawa- years might be stale. ter treatment plant, the wells “Nothing could be further and the “city.”Contractors from the truth.These folks are include cooks, security,cater- really energized at what they’re ing, equipment operators, tech- doing,”he said. nicians, engineers, designers, And “whether it’s taking roustabouts, insulators and these light oil facilities and try- inspection crews. Dubuisson ing to figure out how to make said there are currently about viscous oil with them, or 110 contractors just working whether it’s trying to do any of inspections. see WORKFORCE page 14 Page 14 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 13 along with a technician and an aide, sup- port the volunteer organization. WORKFORCE Everybody else is a volunteer, he said. Work year-round PATRICK JUDY The spill response organization, less a couple of ACS employees, is also volun- Seasonal work includes ice roads and tary. some inspection work in the winter when Supervisors on the slope work with it’s acceptable to travel on the tundra.“But employees to allow them to participate in apart from that, if you’re connected to the training, and that “includes both company road system it’s year-round. It’s just for and contractor — no distinction there,” shorter periods of time in the winter.” Lineberger said. But although the work is year-round, the The bulk of the people,“when you’re extreme weather in the winter is a factor in talking about a response, even a drill, 5 outdoor work. percent are dedicated employees, the rest Dubuisson said that “depending on what are all volunteers,”said Ken Donajkowski, the temperature is, we limit exposures.” ConocoPhillips Alaska’s vice president of At a certain ambient temperature health, safety and environment. (minus 35 Fahrenheit) or wind chill (minus “We have volunteer response groups 50 F),“people may be limited to 30 minute on the slope, so our fire response and outside work intervals” and special permits medical response and our spill response are required to operate heavy equipment. are all staffed primarily by volunteers. In addition to activity restrictions based These are people that are willing to put on the weather,“you monitor what people some extra effort and energy into being wear,”such as making sure people are responders. wearing face masks. “And they do a great job,”Donajkowski Winter visibility is also a factor, with said. travel restrictions and convoy policies as visibility decreases, in three phases. Staying fit and recreating employees and contractors — keep People aren’t allowed to stop on a road, And what else do people do in their so that eliminates roadside work. Kuparuk’s emergency services running. Lineberger said the emergency off-time at Kuparuk? “And as the visibility decreases you man- The field has exercise facilities so that date that in phase 2 you have to have con- response organization has chiefs who oversee the fire brigade and the spill people can stay fit in their off time, voys and you restrict the work that’s done Lineberger said. to essential work.And then phase 3 is response team. Kuparuk is also affiliated with Alaska Clean Seas, and uses some of “There’s an archery club … a ham essentially a whiteout condition and it’s radio club … (and) volunteers arrange only emergency travel and convoys have to their technicians to help with Kuparuk preparedness, he said. and hold worship services on the week- be led by a heavy piece of equipment like end. a bulldozer,”he said. “The fire brigade is roughly 75 strong,” Lineberger said.That’s what it takes to “There’s no hunting, but people fish,” Volunteers play a crucial role field 25 people,“so by having 75 on the all catch and release, Lineberger said. team we’re able to meet our minimums.” And there are fun runs every summer Volunteers — both ConocoPhillips Dedicated chiefs and assistant chiefs, hosted by the different facilities. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 15 Kuparuk safety continues to improve

Paul Dubuisson, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s North Slope operations manager, says safety is part of the culture at Kuparuk. “An example is what we call intervention,”he said, and it’s something you see pretty frequently. Someone notices something that “isn’t quite right and they take it on as their personal responsibility to intervene and see if there’s some better way to do things.”It may be “a contractor stopping a company employee or a company employee stopping a contractor employee” or workers from entirely different work groups.“It starts with the motto ‘nothing is so urgent or important that we can’t take the time to do it safely,’”he said. The work place is the safer for it. “2005 was the seventh consecutive best year ever for us on our safety performance” at Kuparuk, Dubuisson said. And it’s not just the number of incidents:“We know that the severity of incidents has decreased quite a bit over the years,”he said. It’s particularly remarkable in 2006, Lineberger said, because The logo has been “road to zero, with a six in the middle of it “this has been a year in which we’ve seen a tremendous, tremen- (in 2004) and … a seven last year. dous strain on our resources,”driven by high oil prices and other “I know the folks up there are proud of that — and they should activity on the North Slope.That has brought a lot of new people be, because it takes a lot of effort,”Dubuisson said. into the industry,and yet safety performance, he said, continues to be good. Workforce engaged in safety One thing that guests frequently comment on is how clean it is Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips’ Greater Kuparuk operations at the field, Dubuisson said.“They’ve accused me … of going manager, said the company is “hoping for continuous improvement through facilities and cleaning them beforehand.”He says he’s got- from a safety performance standpoint.We have a very engaged ten that comment about both inside and outside, but inside the workforce trying to eliminate workplace injuries at Kuparuk. facilities is where he most often gets that comment. “That’s what makes me most proud,”he said,“… that spirit and Not so: it’s the norm, he says. resulting effort that strives to send everyone home safely.” —Kristen Nelson

Safety culture has grown over time Improved worker safety was one subject employees talked about in the 20th anniversary video the company pro- duced in 2001. • Steve Kruse, talking about his time as a superintendent at CPF-3, said there were no lost-time accidents at the facility the last three years he was there.The facility “went through a major turn- Kuparuk25 around and I think that was really the most rewarding experience, getting the safety culture, where we weren’t hurt- ing anybody.” • Richard Sloan, who first saw Kuparuk when he was hired by ARCO in May of 1981, said one of the most fulfilling events he remembers was in 1997 when they took all the vessels down:“It was a major shutdown.We Stories from the field had to take down the primary separa- tors for internal cleanup. … We had a lot of construction peo- ple involved and we were really focusing on the safety effort and schedule, of course, because the big vessels were out.” Everything seemed to “click really well,”Sloan said.“I found it most rewarding, in the sense that all facets — the contract people, the operating people — were all working toward a common objective and … it came off on schedule see SAFETY page 16 Page 16 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Environmental studies from the get-go Company has been studying wildlife at Kuparuk since development days; swans targeted, caribou also a focus

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

aryn Rea, senior staff biologist for ConocoPhillips Alaska, says there’s C always been a biologist with the com- pany — starting in ARCO days — on the North Slope. In the 1970s it was Angus Gavin, who “did a lot of initial work on the North Slope in conjunction with (U.S.) ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and oth- ers.” At Kuparuk, the company has studied swans since the days of field construction. “ARCO did a number of studies looking at swan distribution within the proposed footprint of Kuparuk” because swans are relatively sensitive to disturbance and “we wanted to avoid areas near swan nests, as much as we could,”Rea said. fields before you build and then you con- There are a lot of birds that use the Swan monitoring has continued at tinue monitoring after.”The company is Kuparuk area for nesting, but “we use the Kuparuk, and the company does swan sur- “not seeing any significant impacts to the swans as an indicator species of the overall veys in any area proposed for new devel- numbers of swans returning to Kuparuk.” health of water bird and shorebird com- opment and continues the surveys after What they do see, she said, is natural vari- munities using the oil fields.” development. ability — some years with higher counts “We’ve targeted tundra swans. … You The studies look at before and after,“the of swan nests than others. number of swans that are occupying the see WILDLIFE page 18 continued from page 15 “And it wasn’t something that was hap- the Kenai LNG plant, noted the safety cul- pening immediately; it wasn’t happening as ture in responding to 2006 e-mail ques- SAFETY a focus — in my opinion — of any singular tions about working at Kuparuk. and without any injuries.” event.” “I think the biggest change was the Sloan said he could remember programs What happened over time, he said, was emphasis on reducing safety and environ- in years past “to entice us to be safe and a considerable change in perspective. mentally related incidents — moving to a people would rise to those occasions … “I guess I found that rewarding — Zero Incident Culture,”McGarry said.“This but you really didn’t ever hear people talk- when the people felt comfortable that they effort was supported from top manage- ing about it before the jobs.” could come forward and I felt like they ment and permeated the entire work People now,he said,“have an expecta- were engaged in safety,we were success- force.The result was a continuous improve- tion that they can do the job safely.I think ful.” ment each of the six years I was involved that’s different.” • Jerry McGarry,who was at Kuparuk with the Kuparuk asset, an accomplish- with HSE from 2000 to 2006, and is now at ment to be very proud of.” Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 17

FMC Technologies congratulates ConocoPhillips on their 25 year anniversary at Kuparuk River and its satellite development.

From the beginning, FMC has supplied wellheads, surface trees and service support to the Kapurak and satellite developments. With more than 65 years of Alaska- based experience, FMC’s devoted management team continues to support this operation and wishes you many more years of success!

Celebrating 25 Years at Kuparuk! Page 18 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 16 WILDLIFE can spot them from the air, they mate for PATRICK JUDY life and … they come back to the same region year after year.” People who work at Kuparuk are inter- ested in the swans. Five satellite transmit- ters have been placed on swans, Rea said, and “the idea is to get a Web site up so people in Kuparuk can watch when the swans leave Kuparuk and travel cross country into the Carolinas.” Caribou work expanded to Alpine Early caribou surveys at Kuparuk were done by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Rea said, and then in the early 1990s the company took up that work, and has “been conducting annual surveys on caribou.” The surveys used to be right after calv- ing in late June, and then through July and 7,000; now it is more than 30,000. convoying traffic to see if that would mini- August. The company has a number of fact mize caribou disturbance “and it really did- ConocoPhillips has expanded the pro- sheets on North Slope birds and animals n’t pan out for us, but we tried it.” gram, she said:“We fly surveys before calv- available on its Web page at www.cono- The best solution seems to be to have ing (and) after calving.We call these lifecy- cophillipsalaska.com/environmental/. vehicles slow down, she said.“The caribou cle periods that we try to capture because will cross the road and go under the the behavior of caribou is different during Workers alerted when pipelines.” the different cycles.” caribou return to field Rea said the company has recently In late June, after calving, the caribou Environmental alerts are issued to work- increased the height of new pipelines to are harassed by mosquitoes,“and so the ers each year at the beginning of summer an average of seven feet above the tundra. concerns of agencies have been that the when caribou return to the Kuparuk field. “Some of the central arctic animals stick caribou can get to the coast.”Rea said stud- About three weeks after calving the around the oil fields in the winter,”and the ies have documented that caribou can get cows and their calves start moving increased height allows for snow. through the field to the coast, as well as through the field “and environmental com- documenting that caribou can get under pliance folks have always put out environ- Before the gravel hits the ground the pipelines and move across roads. mental alerts” and people slow down. The company begins gathering data in “There have been 20 years of studies,” When Meltwater (south of Kuparuk) advance of development so agencies have she said, and when documentation began was under construction the company tried the central arctic caribou herd was some see WILDLIFE page 19 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 19 continued from page 18 ward-looking infrared, surveys. The FLIR is mounted on the WILDLIFE otter and “has been used in the enough information “to do a past to look for polar bear sufficient analysis of potential dens because … it can detect impacts and it also gives us the a heat signature.”That helps information so that we can locate dens of bears that are work with our project teams.” not collared, and then U.S. The studies group then works Geological Survey biologists with the engineers as they are go out and confirm the den laying out roads and pads.“If after the sow has left. It’s not we can shift a road or change 100 percent accurate, she said, the orientation of the pad but it’s a pretty good tool. because of some sensitive habi- The biologists going up in tat we’ve identified, we try to December were with the U.S. do that.” Fish and Wildlife Service and There is also “post-develop- USGS.They were going to fly ment monitoring of key over areas where ice roads are species,”she said.That includes proposed, looking along river- caribou and tundra swans. banks.Those are “prime habitat Spectacled eiders are also sur- for polar bears” because of the veyed because they were listed drifted snow. under the Endangered Species The environmental coordi- Act in 1992. nators, depending on the time “I’m guessing that Kuparuk of year, will issue environmen- has one of the best data sets tal alerts or attend safety tail- for identifying preferred habi- gate meetings to remind peo- tat for spectacled eiders on the ple that this is the time polar North Slope.” bears are out,“so be aware and Hydrologists are on the follow your polar bear avoid- ground in mid-May and caribou ance plan.” biologists start flying in May There are two environmen- and then every couple of tal compliance positions at weeks thereafter. Bird and fish- Kuparuk — four people eries biologists arrive in June. because of the rotation — so In addition, Kuparuk plays there is nearly always environ- host to University of Alaska mental compliance staff on Fairbanks’ graduate students site. studying North Slope wildlife. Environmental compliance “There’s been some work done folks have been at Kuparuk on king eider breeding biology since the beginning, she said, (and) there’s a project wrap- and this is the model that was ping up now on ravens.” used when Alpine was devel- The raven project has oped and that will be used in involved the whole field, she the National Petroleum said, with guys at the produc- Reserve-Alaska. tion facilities telling the It’s not just studies,“envi- researcher raven stories. ronmental awareness is part of “They’re very aware of the the culture,”Rea said. ravens,”she said. The compliance people do permit compliance:“Any per- Also base mit that is issued for Kuparuk, for polar bear studies whether it’s air, storm water, Kuparuk is also a base for they are responsible for com- polar bear and grizzly bear pliance. … Any permit we studies.The pilot who surveys have, we’re responsible for for grizzlies in the summer is complying with it, and so they based out of Kuparuk, Rea educate whatever facility has said. an air permit, for instance, to And polar bear biologists make sure they understand were headed up to Kuparuk in what we need to do for report- mid-December to fly FLIR, for- ing.” Page 20 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

ALASKA • UNITED STATES • CANADA Kuparuk Earth 4UFSMJOH DPOOFDUJPOT Energy Partners recycled Effort changes from recycling at field in the ‘90s to working with partners on statewide conservation projects

By KRISTEN NELSON Original program grassroots Petroleum News “I know Alan Schuyler was a arth Energy Partners was major player in this” effort to formed in the early 1990s start recycling, Donajkowski E by Kuparuk River field said.“It was a grassroots con- employees to promote recy- sciousness effort on the part of cling, says Ken Donajkowski, employees — and that includ- ConocoPhillips Alaska vice ed contractors as well.” president of health, safety and A core group started some environment. recycling efforts and then, in an Recycling became a part of effort to get more people “just the Kuparuk culture, he said, thinking about recycling activi- and employees no longer need- ties and environmental ed Earth Energy Partners to improvements” they came up focus their attention on recy- with the idea of an easy recog- cling. nition process based on a little The program name has been card.They called it a “good guy” From retailers to oil companies, we go recycled: Earth Energy Partners program — they decided “guy” a long way for our customers - About is now a ConocoPhillips part- was generic enough to include nership with external stake- both men and women, he said. 200 million miles every year. And, holders. The idea was to fill out a card they keep coming back. That’s because Caryn Rea, ConocoPhillips recognizing a recycling effort, Carlile offers modern transportation Alaska senior staff biologist, such as bringing newspapers describes the initial focus as from your room for recycling. and logistics services, online shipment “increasing the awareness of Rea said individual efforts tracking, and links with leading trucks, employees about waste reduc- included using the same lunch tion (and) waste recycling.” bag every day — or a mug rail, water and air carriers throughout “This program has a little instead of a throwaway Alaska, the United States and Canada. different focus,”Rae said.“The Styrofoam cup. It’s the kind of success that only comes original program, the waste The program grew from reduction and recycling com- individuals to departments. from long-term relationships. ponent of Earth Energy Donajkowski said one thing Partners, really took off in the that got significant recognition field and it is now part of our was when people in the vehi- culture.We are hoping to have cle maintenance shop found this same reaction from information on recyclable fil- employees with our new focus. ters for oil, made from metal in “The current Earth Energy such a way that you didn’t Partners is looking to increase need a paper cartridge.You employee awareness of critters, took the filters out, put them access and conservation issues through a cleaning cycle and Customer committed for the long haul. statewide,”she said.“The pro- reinstalled them — you didn’t gram also provides opportuni- have to throw them out. ties to work cooperatively with He said some of what they www.carlile.biz • 1-800-478-1853 environmental NGOs, as well as did is “painfully obvious” now, state and federal agencies.” see RECYCLING page 21 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 21 continued from page 20 RECYCLING Schuyler: environmental stewardship “but in the early years it wasn’t.”Stainless Alan Schuyler worked at Kuparuk from June 1984 through August 1996, initially as steel valves were tossed out, until they the person in the environmental compliance department,“which grew from only me found there was a way to recycle stainless to a small environmental compliance group which had four people.”Schuyler is now steel and set up bins to capture the valves. HSE manager at the ConocoPhillips JV in Long Beach.The Although the program was initiated at department assisted in the field and ensured the oil field was in Kuparuk25 Kuparuk,“eventually it grew to cover all compliance with all environmental conditions of the company’s our operations, including Cook Inlet,”he permit to operate including spill response. said. Schuyler said the project or team accomplishment he’s most As the program grew,they wanted to proud of “was the grassroots efforts of the Kuparuk community give out recognition pins. Donajkowski said that promoted environmental stewardship of the oil field.” they enlisted Jim Davis to come up with a He said the environmental compliance department “was new logo every year featuring birds and instrumental in inspiring the field to promote pollution preven- animals such as swans, ducks and polar tion processes throughout the oilfield operation,”with individ- bears. ual departments competing for ways “to reduce, recycle and While interest in the “good guy” pro- reuse all materials required for a successful North Slope opera- Stories from the field gram waned,“all the practices remained tion.”Kuparuk saved “thousands of dollars by more efficiently very much engrained and in place,”he said. operating”the field as a result of these grassroots efforts. Program re-energized Kuparuk was recognized for these efforts with awards from the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.“These When Rea started coming up with ideas awards recognized the efforts that demonstrate that the organization had exceeded for environmental action in Alaska,the their regular duties to protect the environment,”Schuyler said. company adopted the name of the early employee initiative, Earth Energy Partners, and the program carried on, Donajkowski wintering grounds in the Carolinas,”she increased public access to wildlife said. said. resources, education outreach, collaborative Rea said the resurrected Earth Energy In the re-energized program relationships with regulatory agencies and Partners includes external stakeholders ConocoPhillips is partnering with the non-profit organizations and involvement such as the Alaska Department of Fish and Alaska departments of Fish and Game, opportunities for ConocoPhillips Alaska Game, the Audubon Society and the Nature Transportation and Public Facilities, the employees.The company contributed in Conservancy. Department of Natural Resources’ Division excess of $600,000 for 2006 work at Potter “Now Earth Energy Partners is focused of Parks and the Municipality of Anchorage Marsh, and has committed to spending in on long-term conservation of and access to in the Potter Marsh Trailhead and Access total some $1.5 million for environmental key fish and wildlife habitats and popula- Improvement project initiated by Fish and projects around the state. tions in Alaska,”she said.“The tundra swan Game. ConocoPhillips is providing funding Phase 1 of the project, completed in the project is one of those projects. It seeks to and in-kind support. fall of 2006, includes an extension of the get a better understanding of their migrato- The Potter Marsh work involves habitat ry routes from the North Slope to their enhancement for migratory birds and fish, see RECYCLING page 22 Page 22 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field ULSD plant going in at Kuparuk in ‘08 Arctic ultra low sulfur diesel facility will serve both ConocoPhillips, BP North Slope operations

By KRISTEN NELSON When you transfer liquid “you have Petroleum News potential for spills,”plus the additional truck traffic on the Haul Road and the

y the end of 2008 Kuparuk will pro- PATRICK JUDY potential for accidents there, he said. duce ultra low sulfur diesel at a new B facility at CPF-3. Facility needed to operate And by agreement with the Air Division in arctic conditions at the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, that diesel will be used for all Both ConocoPhillips and BP produce requirements at fields operated by diesel on the slope at topping plants — ConocoPhillips and BP,by the companies one at Kuparuk and one at Prudhoe Bay. and by their contractors, not just for uses What the companies proposed was mandated by law. building one plant on the North Slope to Some 70-80 percent of diesel uses produce ULSD, but they had to get a plant would have been covered by the require- designed and built that could operate in ments. In exchange for time to design, build arctic conditions. and install an arctic-capable ultra low sulfur New federal rules require using ultra diesel facility slope operators will also use low sulfur diesel fuel in certain diesel-pow- ULSD in the remaining applications, said ered highway vehicles (trucks and buses) Ken Donajkowski, ConocoPhillips Alaska by July 2006 and in non-road engines (pri- vice president of health, safety and environ- marily construction and earthmoving ment. equipment) beginning in 2010. Under the ULSD agreement the con- Uses not required include such things as slope. Donajkowski said one estimate found struction of the new North Slope ultra low portable heaters, portable light plants and that if the companies had to haul ultra low sulfur diesel facility is scheduled for the stand-by generators, he said. sulfur diesel to the North Slope there end of 2008, with production of the ULSD The agreement saves the companies would have been 20 trucks on the road at from having to truck the diesel to the all times. see DIESEL page 25

continued from page 21 and protect Alaska’s natural resources,” Kuparuk’s efforts have been recognized. ConocoPhillips Alaska President Jim Bowles The field received an Arctic Green Star RECYCLING said in April.“This project is the corner- Certification in 1998, an Environmental boardwalk and clearing for an expanded stone of our company’s Earth Energy Protection Agency Region 10 Evergreen parking lot. Partners program, focused on balancing Award in 1999 and the Interstate Oil and “Helping improve Potter Marsh is an conservation and access to Alaska’s unique Gas Compact Commission Environmental excellent way for ConocoPhillips to sustain places.” Stewardship Award in 2000. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 23 Page 24 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Kuparuk considered for VPP star Field will be largest upstream facility to receive OSHA classification for occupational safety, health

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

s a result of its safety program, Kuparuk is being evaluated for the A OSHA Voluntary Protection Program. The field was recommended for a “star” rating going in, rather than “merit” with an opportunity to improve to star. ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY The Occupational Safety & Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor’s Voluntary Protection Programs, VPP,“promote effective worksite-based safety and health,”OSHA says on its Web site. “In the VPP,management, labor and OSHA establish cooperative relationships at workplaces that have implemented a Kuparuk Operations Center comprehensive safety and health manage- ment system,”OSHA said. candidate for this certification.” “The auditors told us that they were VPP is OSHA’s “official recognition of ConocoPhillips “wanted to approach going to recommend us for ‘star’status. the outstanding efforts of employers and this field-wide. Most other operations This demonstrates the great relationship employees who have achieved exem- qualify facility by facility,”Lineberger said. between employees and the company plary occupational safety and health,” “Our concern with that approach was and our ability to work together on these OSHA said. this is such a huge cultural thing for us workplace safety issues.” and we didn’t want to erect any barriers Lineberger said they heard comments Preliminary assessment in 2005 between our facilities.We didn’t want to from the OSHA inspectors that included Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips’ increase the complexity for our contrac- “best ever” and “best we’ve seen.” greater Kuparuk operations manager, said tors who work from facility to facility.” OSHA will forward its recommenda- the company “had a preliminary assess- After that 2005 preliminary assess- tion to the Department of Labor and the ment in December of 2005 in which we ment, OSHA supported the field-wide department takes that forward to the were visited by some consultants from application. governor. OSHA to determine if we’d be a good The certification audit in August “went “We’re hoping that within a matter of very well,”he said. see VPP page 25 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 25 continued from page 24 “It’s a neat external assessment that Dubuisson, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s North demonstrates that we are on the right Slope operations manager. VPP path,”he said. Starting with the preliminary assess- weeks, we’ll learn that that formal recog- ment, the process took less than a year, nition has been approved.” Kuparuk recommended for star he said. Lineberger said he understands An OSHA team did a Kuparuk site visit “And typically what happens is an Kuparuk would be the largest upstream in August. operation the size of Kuparuk would be facility to apply for and receive star sta- “And we know that their recommen- split up into what would be more man- tus. dation is for star certification,”said Paul see VPP page 26 continued from page 22 use it everywhere we use diesel as a fuel.” Installation in summer 2008 “So every source, combustion source Paul Dubuisson, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s DIESEL using diesel will be cleaner, not just those manager of North Slope operations said regulated by EPA,”Donajkowski said. fuel in early 2009. In addition, modules for the ultra low sulfur diesel ULSD will be used at Alpine;BP will use ConocoPhillips and BP will spend approxi- plant will come up on the 2008 summer it; and the companies are going to require mately $4 million on further emission sealift; installation will start that summer all their contractors to use it. improvements to diesel-fired sources. and the facility will be in operation at the “We’re ensuring that our contractors ConocoPhillips and BP will use ULSD end of 2008. adhere to these provisions, including non- on the North Slope in all diesel-driven vehi- Both Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay have regulated sources.” cles and equipment, including equipment topping plants that produce diesel. There won’t be significant excess capac- not subject to the new federal rules.The “You’ll take the diesel from the topping ity,but he said whatever excess diesel there producers will also require their contrac- plant (at Kuparuk) and you’ll put it through is “we will make that diesel available to oth- tors to use the cleaner fuel as well. this new facility and it will strip the incre- ers.” Donajkowski said there wasn’t time to mental amount of sulfur out of that.”If “The complexity is such that we don’t get a plant in place, so the companies more diesel is required, it will be trucked want to be building multiple ultra low sul- agreed that in exchange for the time need- from the Prudhoe topping plant to the fur diesel plants,”Donajkowski said, which ed to build a plant “and not have to haul new facility. is why BP and ConocoPhillips will co-own diesel, we will actually use ultra low sulfur The Kuparuk topping plant is at CPF-1; the one plant at Kuparuk. diesel in all sources — not just what the the new facility will be at CPF-3, where regulation requires — but we’re going to there is more space for it, Dubuisson said. Page 26 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 25 site within Alaska and the — reaching for star. contractors,”she said. largest upstream unit in the The reviewer looked at the VPP United States to get the certifi- ConocoPhillips health, safety Other facilities ageable units and there might cation, he said. and environment director in with VPP certification be four, or six at Kuparuk. the seat next to him and said, Oil and gas facilities in “And what we decided to Companies generally “Reaching for star — most Alaska which have VPP star do was to certify the entire move up to star rating companies are glad to get recognition are: BP field because we wanted to When companies apply for merit and achieve star in a Exploration (Alaska)’s have consistency in our the OSHA VPP,“they are often couple of years.” Anchorage facility; BP’s gas whole safety approach and categorized as merit … and “We’re that good,”the HSE plants at Prudhoe Bay; we wanted to recognize the over the next two, three years director responded. ConocoPhillips Alaska’s efforts of everyone there and you work on improving your “Well, we’ll just see about Beluga River unit on the west not just individual areas.” programs and your culture that,”the OSHA reviewer said. side of Cook Inlet; and Peak The OSHA folks were a lit- and then you reach star,” Donajkowski wasn’t at Oilfield Service Co. at Beluga. tle concerned that going for which is the highest rating, Kuparuk for the review — Nationwide VPP star facili- certification of the entire field said Ken Donajkowski, and hadn’t yet heard about ties are BP American may be too much, Dubuisson ConocoPhillips Alaska’s vice the incident on the plane — Production Co.’s South Texas said. But after a three-day site president of health, safety and when he called Paul operations center in Beeville, visit,“they were unanimous environment. Dubuisson at the end of the Texas; Chevron’s Painter that it was an excellent facili- Kuparuk started out reach- first day to see how it was Reservoir unit in Evanston, ty and it was the right way to ing for star rating, and wasn’t going. Dubuisson said it was Wyo.; Kinder Morgan’s Yates go about it in terms of certify- afraid to say so, said going pretty good, but also field in Iraan,Texas; the ing the entire field.” Donajkowski, relating an inci- said the reviewers were going Whitney Canyon Carter Creek The number one thing, dent that occurred when the into great detail on the pro- facility in Evanston,Wyo.; Dubuisson said,“is that every- OSHA reviewers were on grams. Koch Hydrocarbon SW LLC in body goes home safely.” their way to Kuparuk for their After Donajkowski heard Mont Belvieu,Texas; and the “But it is nice to get the on-site visit in August. One of the story about the incident Texaco Maysville facility in external recognition of the them pulled a flyer out of the on the plane he could under- Maysville, Okla. amount of effort that folks up seat pocket in the charter stand why the reviewers were there put into the program.” plane and the flyer said some- being so thorough. BEAR: behaviors Kuparuk will be the largest thing to the effect of Kuparuk Came the last day of the eliminate all risk review, with about 35 people One of “the major things from the field at the closing that OSHA highlighted in meeting and up stands the terms of … an outstanding reviewer who saw the flyer visible effort that they recog- on the plane. nized is the behavior-based He told the group that his safety process that the summary statement to the employees refer to as BEAR: team leader was “wow.” behaviors eliminate all risk,” “He was that impressed,” Donajkowski said. Donajkowski said. It’s not typi- “One of the original offer- cal for a company to get star ings was ‘behaviors eliminate going in, he said.And “here’s a every risk,’but they decided guy who just feels like the BEAR was probably better gauntlet had been thrown than BEER,”he said. down” and was out to see that BEAR is an employee safety Kuparuk was as good as it process.At a recent steering advertised. team meeting 62 people The OSHA team leader said attended,“employees, contrac- at the closing meeting that tors and they cover the spec- she was glad they had looked trum of job functions on the at the whole field, not individ- slope.” ual facilities, because “it was Donajkowski said his orga- apparent that the safety cul- nization has some safety spe- ture at CPF-1 was the same at cialists at Kuparuk, two at CPF-2, at CPF-3, and the each of the processing facili- engagement of the contractor ties.“With employees and con- community was also another tractors engaged in this safety thing that just stood out for observation program, we’ve them.” got an army of resources out “They saw a consistency; there focused on safety,”he and the engagement of the said. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 27 NOTICE: This is a drill! Kuparuk Fire Department practices rescue techniques regularly

Volunteers — both ConocoPhillips employees and contrac- tors — keep Kuparuk’s emergency services running. Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips’ greater Kuparuk operations

DALE MAJESKE DALE manager, said chiefs and assistant chiefs are dedicated, along with a technician and an aide that supports the organization, and an ACS technician. Everybody else is a volunteer. Dale Majeske, a Kuparuk operator, took these photographs of 2006 training exercises.A volunteer captain with the Kuparuk fire department, Majeske said the volunteers train every week on their off time from their jobs, typically two hours in the winter, but three hours in the summer when they can train at such exercises as fighting live fires. DALE MAJESKE DALE DALE MAJESKE DALE DALE MAJESKE DALE DALE MAJESKE DALE

Page 28 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field JUDY PATRICK JUDY

Two rigs drilling West Sak at 1J pad By KRISTEN NELSON and one new drill site, 1J, includes 13 wells Petroleum News Long West Sak saga at 1E, 31 wells at 1J, expansion of 1E facili- ties and construction of a new pad at 1J, n 2004 ConocoPhillips and the other 1971 West Sak discovery including facilities, pipelines and power Kuparuk owners committed to expand- early 1980’s West Sak pilot project lines. I ing West Sak heavy oil production. 1997-1998 Conventional vertical wells Fox said the deeper viscous oil on the Because of that commitment, Kuparuk 1999-2000 First multilateral wells North Slope, called West Sak at Kuparuk and River drill site 1J is the busiest in Alaska. 2000-2005 Development optimization Schrader Bluff at Milne Point and at Orion ConocoPhillips Alaska has two rigs 1J pad development and Polaris in Prudhoe Bay,combined with drilling West Sak development wells at the the shallower Ugnu formation, accounts for new pad.At times during 2006, there were 23 billion barrels of oil in place, which is three rigs — two Doyon drilling rigs and a tion was discovered at Kuparuk in 1971. equivalent to the original oil in place at Nordic workover rig. ConocoPhillips and co-owners BP, Prudhoe. West Sak development drilling began at ExxonMobil and Unocal have so far com- But this isn’t Prudhoe.Viscous oil suffers 1E in 2004 and will continue at 1J through mitted $1 billion to its development. from “a triple whammy effect,”Fox said. 2007.The new wells are expected to Half of that, some $500 million, was “You’ve got the low rates, the low recovery increase West Sak oil production to about spent over 20 years in experimentation to factor and the low price.” 40,000 barrels per day by 2008. (Production bring viscous development to the commer- averaged about 10,000 bpd when the 1E cial stage at the deepest West Sak accumula- Cold, heavy oil and 1J development project was tion in the Kuparuk River unit, West Sak oil isn’t just heavy oil,it is announced in 2004.) ConocoPhillips’ North Slope development “cold, heavy oil, and that means it’s extreme- In late 2006 there were 65 West Sak manager Matt Fox said in December 2004. ly viscous,”he said. wells at Kuparuk drill sites 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E (At the time Fox was the Kuparuk area The reservoirs are shallow,from roughly and 1J. development manager.) 3,000 feet below the surface to some 4,500 The $500 million West Sak investment feet and they lie under some 1,800 feet of $1 billion in investments announced by ConocoPhillips and BP in permafrost, so the reservoir temperatures The shallow West Sak viscous accumula- 2004 at one existing Kuparuk drill site, 1E, see WEST SAK page 29 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 29 JUDY PATRICK JUDY

Pad 1J under construction continued from page 28 Well types have changed from vertical to “And that would kill the economics of the horizontal multilateral; drilling reach project because of the level of the failures,” WEST SAK changed from moderate to extended reach; Fox said. vary from about 40 degrees Fahrenheit to the recovery mechanism has changed from They are still using electric submersible about 90 degrees F,“and that combination waterflood to waterflood enhanced by lean pumps, but now they are building in back- of these cold temperatures and the relative- gas injection; and the method of dealing up: the ability to use gas lift when the ly low API means that we have extremely with sand has changed. pumps fail,“so we can keep some level of high viscosities,”Fox said. The viscous West Sak-Schrader Bluff and production going, and that made a surpris- Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil have Ugnu reservoirs are unconsolidated, poorly ingly big difference to the economic viabili- about the same viscosity — ability to flow cemented and sand is produced with the ty.” — as water, he said.West Sak has about the oil. An oil-based mud system replaced a same viscosity as olive oil and the shallower In the late 1990s, the focus was on keep- water-based mud system for drilling, Ugnu has viscosity similar to maple syrup. ing the sand in the reservoir by using costly improving both drillability and productivity. In terms of production this is a big sand screens in the well bores.The problem And how the oil is handled at the sur- whammy,Fox said:West Sak is about 100 was some of the West Sak sand is as fine as face changed, Fox said. times as viscous as water.The flow rate of flour and you couldn’t devise a screen that The initial plan was to mix West Sak oil oil is “indirectly proportional to viscosity,so could keep it back; plus, restricting sand with Kuparuk production since both occur if viscosity increases by a factor of 100, with screens constrained the flow rate and at the same drill pads, but experimentation which is what we have here going from the was exacerbating the viscosity problem. showed that wasn’t enough, Fox said, so Kuparuk to the West Sak,rates will decrease Fox said the solution was to focus on heaters are being added at the drill sites and by a factor of 100.” flow rate and deal with the sand that came chemicals are added to allow the sand to In addition, recovery rates are lower to the surface by re-injecting it. drop out of the oil. because West Sak oil is very difficult to Well spacing has also changed, from And the volume of oil that can be move out of the pore spaces in the forma- 1,100 feet to 1,250 feet. It may not look like accessed from a single well has changed tion,“it’s very difficult to displace because a big deal, he said, but the more distance because extended reach multilateral wells of its viscosity,”he said. you can put between the wells, the fewer are now possible because of “new technolo- And refineries pay less for lower API oil you have to drill — a “big deal for lowering gies like rotary steerable systems and more than for Prudhoe or Kuparuk oil. costs. efficient torque reduction tools (and) more efficient mud systems,”increasing produc- Technology changes allow production Keeping the oil flowing tion from some 200 bpd from 1980s verti- While the North Slope producers have Another thing that’s changed is keeping cal wells to 2,500 to 3,000 bpd from long been trying to make the shallow accumula- the oil flowing. tri-lateral wells. Electric submersible pumps were used tions commercial for two decades, Fox said, Waterflood plus gas the developments that finally made the best to move the heavy oil to the surface, but of this oil commercial have all been since they break down, and wells had to be shut Viscous oil is difficult to displace from the late 1990s. in for months waiting for a workover rig. see WEST SAK page 30 Page 30 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 29 made a concerted effort to tackle the North Slope’s mas- The exotic, heavy oil “fish share knowledge across the sive undeveloped heavy oil bone”wells drilled in Venezuela WEST SAK slope and within the operating resources.” work there because it’s primary rock pores because of its viscos- companies,”Fox said. The North Slope viscous depletion only; the oil is too vis- ity,Fox said.With waterflood, a In an early 2007 comment to inter-company technical team is cous for waterflood.They’re recovery rate of some 18 per- Petroleum News, Don Dunham, mainly driven by pumping out the 10 percent cent is possible. In the deeper performance unit leader at BP, ConocoPhillips and BP with they can get with primary North Slope conventional reser- agreed with him, saying viscous some ExxonMobil participa- depletion and leaving the rest voirs miscible gas injection is oil production across the North tion. in the ground, Fox said. used for enhanced oil recovery, Slope (BP-operated Prudhoe “Other co-owners support- At West Sak,with water- a type of gas injection where Bay and Milne Point plus ing the team’s activities are kept flood, wells need to be in the gas injected mixes with the ConocoPhillips-operated informed of best practices and straight lines for efficient water- oil in the reservoir. Kuparuk) has benefited from knowledge sharing which may flood sweep. But viscous oils “don’t lend industry cooperation and tech- have broader applications,” The exotic wells might be a themselves to a miscible nical challenge. ConocoPhillips Alaska spokes- possibility,he said, in shallower process,”Fox said, so instead of “BP realized that viscous oil woman Dawn Patience told portions of West Sak or for the miscible gas, lean gas will be in Alaska is so economically Petroleum News in January Ugnu, if primary depletion were used. ConocoPhillips is pilot challenged that if the owners 2007. to be used there. testing this process now,he did not all put our heads togeth- One thing the viscous team Steam assisted gravity said. er, we would not realize the has been asked to do was to drainage, used in Canada, The lean gas doesn’t mix best outcome.Alaska has bene- improve the ability to predict wouldn’t work for the West Sak with the oil, but “some mole- fited from this cooperation rates.“We had a track record of because the sands are too thin, cules in the gas link to the oil which BP hopes will continue over-promising and under-deliv- but it might work in the thicker and very little exchange is as we look ahead to finding ering and it was killing our Ugnu formation, and “we’re run- enough to drop the viscosity solutions to the Ugnu chal- credibility outside Alaska when ning laboratory experiments dramatically,”for example from lenge,”Dunham said. we would go looking for funds,” and reservoir simulation experi- 60 centipoise (a measure of vis- “The advances in the pro- Fox said. ments to try and see if we can cosity) to 10 centipoise, which duction of the North Slope’s vis- Sand control is another issue make this viable,”Fox said.“But produces “a significant increase cous oil resources and the relat- the viscous team tackled, as was there are some big challenges in the displacement.” ed technology breakthroughs depletion planning, getting the in this environment: we have The expected increase in would not have been possible oil out of the ground,“and that 1,800 feet of permafrost (and) recovery with lean gas injection without knowledge sharing team came up with the idea of pumping steam through that — is 20 percent over waterflood, among the West Sak co-own- doing viscosity-reduction gas that has to be thought through.” increasing total recovery to ers,”Georg Storaker, injection,”he said. The technology advances about 22 percent. ConocoPhillips vice president The team is continuing to that allowed 1E and 1J to be of North Slope operations, told work, learning from implemen- commercial “have been rapid Slope-wide sharing Petroleum News in January tations and looking at what can and they’ve been dramatic,”Fox “The only way we were real- 2007.“It is unprecedented to be done next. said.“And we’re actively work- see companies like BP, ing on the next technology ly able to exploit these technol- What about the rest? ogy advantages is because we ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips breakthrough we need to get to and Chevron work together to Of the 23 billion barrels in the even more viscous stuff.” place, some 15-16 billion barrels are at Kuparuk, with 1C and Results to date 1D, the experimental pads, There was a West Sak pilot developing about half a billion project in the mid-1980s but barrels and the 1E and 1J pads sustained production only exploiting oil in place of about began in December 1997. a billion barrels.“And that same Alaska Oil and Gas technology that we’ve unlocked Conservation Commission for 1E and 1J, we can apply to records show 25.9 million bar- somewhere between another rels produced from West Sak 800 million to a billion barrels,” through the end of November Fox said. 2006, with 490,616 barrels pro- But technology break- duced in November, an average throughs will be required to of 16,355 barrels per day from unlock the rest of the potential. 36 producing completions. The drilling technology can Total Kuparuk River field be used,“but not the recovery production for November was mechanism, not waterflood: you some 4.4 million barrels, so can’t effectively waterflood.”It West Sak accounted for 11 per- will take new technologies, Fox cent of Kuparuk production in said. November. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 31 Early 1980s: Kuparuk build continues Following startup in 1981, CPF-2, CPF-3, seawater treatment plant, drill sites added; production reaches 298,000 bpd

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

he years immediately following Kuparuk startup in 1981 saw major T facilities work completed at the field, with the addition of the second and third processing facilities and the seawater treat- STEVE HUBBARD COURTESY ment plant, construction of drill sites and an expanded Kuparuk sales line. By the end of 1986, big development projects were complete, and focus had begun to shift to reservoir management. The 1982 sealift included modules for Kuparuk including additional compression capacity for CPF-1 so the facility could han- dle more natural gas and maintain produc- tion levels. The sealift also contained the first incre- ment of the Kuparuk waterflood project for installation at CPF-1, the first large-scale water injection project on the North Slope, which began operation in early

see EARLY 1980S page 32 North Slope sealift arriving at West Dock. Page 32 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 31 EARLY 1980S Early days: Lamprecht, Masterson, Wall 1983, more than a year ahead • Don Lamprecht, now retired, was opera- it, but … in the mid-1980s we started shooting of the Prudhoe Bay waterflood. tions manager at Kuparuk from 1984 to 1989 some swath 3-D seismic lines, which were real- Production from Kuparuk, and field manager from 1989 to 1991, but ly 2-D lines, essentially,close to each other.And which had begun the previous from 1982 he was facility engineering manag- we started to see some faults we hadn’t December, was averaging more er in Anchorage with responsibilities noticed were there.” than 90,000 bpd. including support of Kuparuk. Kuparuk25 Bob Strode, a geophysicist, sched- Kuparuk produced more oil “So I was fortunate to be uled a meeting with “a world-recog- than expected in its first year, involved with the first 10 years of nized seismic stratigrapher from 31.8 million barrels, an average Kuparuk operations,”he said in a Plano — the ARCO lab — who of 87,000 barrels per day.The January 2007 e-mail. came up here and Bob showed him field had been forecast to pro- Lamprecht said Kuparuk was the swath data and the evidence duce 80,000 bpd. always a great place to work and he that the field was fairly highly fault- Ninety wells were drilled by credited “the leadership of the first ed and this world expert said well, the end of 1982, with 75 pro- group of managers and superinten- no, I think you’re seeing stratigraph- ducing oil. dents who moved from Prudhoe to ic changes in the seismic data. ARCO had 163 employees start up Kuparuk. Landon Kelly,Walt Stories from the field “And Bob said, no, that’s not cor- working at Kuparuk, with about Crandall, Kenny Keys, Frank Love rect, these are faults. half of them on the slope at any and John Blackwelder were those initial lead- The expert told Strode,“Young man,you given time. ers,”he said.“They set the work ethic that still have a lot to learn about seismic interpreta- stands today.Innovation, optimism, hard work tion.” First waterflood in 1983 and safety were their most important values,” Masterson said “of course it turned out that The first waterflood on the he said. the field is very highly faulted. Once we shot 3- North Slope was initiated in D beginning in 1988, you look at a structure January 1983 at Kuparuk, begin- •The fractured nature of the Kuparuk field map now and it looks like shattered glass ning with 3,200 bpd of water wasn’t initially recognized. Dallam Masterson, dropped on the floor. So Bob was right.” at drill site 1A; the rate was to still with ConocoPhillips but now based in be gradually increased to 5,000 Houston, said in the 2001 20th anniversary • Ray Wall started with the Kuparuk facili- bpd, and then expanded to video that “when the field first started being ties project in Denver; today he’s construction other wells at drill sites 1A and developed, we didn’t realize how highly fault- superintendent at Kuparuk. He said in a 1E. ed the field was.We had some 2-D lines across see STORIES page 35 ARCO estimated that 1.25 billion to 1.5 billion barrels of oil would be recovered with the water must be heated installed. 1983: new pipeline; waterflood, compared to a frac- before injection to avoid having “The key is to keep the dock at Oliktok Point tion of that volume without it freeze in the pipelines.And water moving and keep it the pipelines must be insulated warm,”said Landon Kelly, A joint venture agreement waterflood. was reached in 1983 for a 24- Because of arctic conditions, and freeze-protection systems Kuparuk operations manager. “And we have to pump enough inch pipeline, expected to han- volume to overcome heat loss dle as much as 250,000 barrels as the water travels down per day by the late 1980s. through the permafrost.” The field’s 16-inch line, Water came initially from which handled more than wells; water for full-field water- 100,000 bpd, was converted to flood would come from the other service once the 24-inch Beaufort Sea. line was completed. By March, 22,000 bpd of In 1983 sealift modules for water were being injected into Kuparuk were offloaded at a wells on drill sites 1A and 1E, new dock at Oliktok Point, Kelly said. In Phase I the rate west of Prudhoe Bay,and then was gradually increased to transported 10 miles south to 50,000 bpd; when full water- the Kuparuk field; previously flood was under way in the late Kuparuk modules came into 1980s, an estimated 400,000 to Prudhoe Bay and were trans- 450,000 bpd of water would be ported 40 miles overland. injected. The 1983 sealift carried the ARCO said it expected to utilities portion of CPF-2; the oil recover an additional 800 mil- handling portion of the new lion to 900 million barrels of oil facility is scheduled for the with waterflood. see EARLY 1980S page 33 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 33 continued from page 32 EARLY 1980S 1984 sealift. Different than Prudhoe, but with ex-Prudhoe leaders A 1983 article in the ARCO Spark, the company newsletter, gave some insight into ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY work at the new field, now producing 100,000 bpd. “There’s an attitude up here that every- body’s looking for oil,”said Bob Appling, Kuparuk operations manager.“It’s a person- al pride that everyone shares, and everyone sees to it the job’s done right.” Appling said there are a number of dif- ferences between Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay. “Because Prudhoe can still produce Installation of the second processing facility, CPF-2, was planned following its arrival on the 1984 sealift, more oil than it is allowed to sell, in some which also carried a tripling of bed capacity for the Kuparuk Operations Center. cases, repairs can be made in a less than production to 190,000 bpd. The seawater treatment plant, two mod- critical manner. Kuparuk was now one of the five largest ular buildings connected by a 100-foot arc- “Over here, we get to sell every barrel U.S. producing fields. tic walkway,was scheduled to go in at we can get our hands on. If something goes Harold Heinze, president of ARCO Oliktok Point some 20 miles from the down, man, you get it fixed right then and Alaska, attributed the early startup to Kuparuk main camp and will process back into production. Every minute lost is exceptional teamwork, as well as “excellent 585,000 barrels of seawater a day through less money to the company.We take all productivity” by field construction workers four intake bays.A jet pump will separate down-time very seriously.” and supervisors.“This is the fastest major marine life from the arctic water and safely Appling also said that Kuparuk people facility ever put into service on the North return them to their environment. are constantly looking for ways to boost Slope,”Heinze said. production levels.“Not a week goes by that The new 24-inch Kuparuk pipeline 1985; 200-million somebody isn’t in here with an idea. Some went into operation Oct. 6, replacing the barrel mark passed we can use, some we can’t. But it sure 16-inch pipeline in operation since field helps to have that kind of input,”he said. Kuparuk set a one-day production startup. Appling listed a number of people as record in October 1985 of 264,490 barrels. responsible for the field’s first-year success, “We had expected that Kuparuk produc- Drilling records set; tion would not reach 250,000 barrels a day above all Landon Kelly,the field’s overall more waterflood operations chief.“I think everyone would until late 1986, after the installation of a agree that Landon is the single most impor- The Alaska Spark reported in December third central production facility,”said Ben tant player at Kuparuk. He’s the guy who 1984 that drilling records were being set Odom,ARCO’s senior vice president for pushed this field as a high priority long nearly every month at Kuparuk. During operations.“However, our aggressive and before it became one.And he’s the one development drilling in 1980, it took an innovative engineering and operations peo- largely responsible for bringing it on earlier average of 22 days at a cost of $2.5 million ple have been able to achieve higher rates than anyone expected.” to drill and complete a well. than expected from only two production The average time had dropped to 11 facilities.” Major expansion in 1984 days and the average cost to $1.5 million, The water injection program went into with the current drilling record held by operation Oct. 28, 1985, and is expected to Installation of the second processing Parker rig 141. It drilled and cased a 6,704- triple recoverable oil, from 500 million bar- facility,CPF-2, was planned following its foot well in four days, 23 and three-fourths rels without waterflood to 1.5 billion bar- arrival on the 1984 sealift, which also car- hours, a drilling average of 1,348 feet per rels with waterflood. ried a tripling of bed capacity for the day. “It’s a major shift from primary produc- Kuparuk Operations Center. Four rigs have been working at Kuparuk tion to secondary waterflooding,”senior The sealift also included a crude oil top- since the spring of 1984 and if they com- reservoir engineer Paul White told the ping plant which would be producing plete their 1984 schedule, 117 wells will Alaska Spark.“The recent history of 3,000 bpd of diesel fuel by the end of the have been drilled; 155 wells are planned for Kuparuk focuses on expanding the field by year. 1985. drilling new wells.We’ll still be expanding The sealift arrived a week ahead of Major construction by ARCO in 1985 the field, but the focus will be coming schedule and that contributed to getting included waterflood at Kuparuk, with con- around to managing a developed field. CPF-2 online at the end of October, more struction for the seawater treatment and “This will include developing the less than a month early,increasing production injection plants under way,the Alaska Spark productive areas of the field,”White said, by 75,000 bpd and raising the field’s total said in May 1985. see EARLY 1980S page 34 Page 34 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 33 next several years. Kuparuk also had mod- estimated 400 North Slope jobs affected, ules for five new drill sites on the 1986 about 100 jobs per drill rig. EARLY 1980S sealift. The cut in development drilling was “where the costs will be about the same ARCO Alaska advertised in Alaska for part of ARCO’s 30 percent capital spending but the benefits are much less.” skilled instrument technicians and other reduction, announced in February. Kuparuk passed the 200 million barrel oilfield operating personnel to operate the The number of wells to be drilled at production mark Jan. 8, 1986, two months new facilities, and did receive Alaska appli- Kuparuk was reduced from 150 to 90. ahead of schedule, with production at cants. In mid-April ARCO Alaska said the dras- 240,000 bpd. “The problem is that there simply are tic drop in crude oil prices had prompted It had taken 32 months for the field to not enough experienced and technically it to streamline its operations on the North produce its first 100 million barrels on Aug. qualified Alaskans to fill the large number Slope.The company said staff levels would 16, 1984. of positions which are being created by the be reduced and a number of employees After CPF-2 was added in late 1984, and new facilities,”said ARCO Alaska President would be reassigned to operate new facili- with continued development drilling, the Harold Heinze.“We have created so many ties scheduled to arrive on the 1986 sealift. 200 million-barrel mark took just 17 new jobs in the past several years, in bring- Ben Odom,ARCO Alaska’s senior vice months. ing on line new facilities that we have president of operations, said the reassign- already drawn heavily from the pool of ment of present ARCO personnel meant no 1986 sealift last planned qualified Alaskan workers.” significant new hiring would take pace The 1986 sealift was ARCO’s last com- As a result, he said,ARCO is placing ads from outside the company.It had been esti- mitted shipment of facilities to the North in Lower 48 papers. mated that 200 new employees would be needed, but a majority of those jobs,ARCO Slope. For the first time since the discovery The 1986 downturn of oil on the North Slope, no future major said, would now be filled by employees projects were in the design or construction But by early March 1986,ARCO said the already working on the North Slope, whose stages, and no new facilities were planned declining price of crude oil had forced it to current jobs will be eliminated by the for the 1987 sealift or beyond,ARCO said in reduce its North Slope development realignment. drilling activity by nearly 50 percent. Of the January 1986. CPF-3 installation The 1986 sealift included Kuparuk’s nine drilling rigs operating on the North third central production facility which Slope earlier in the winter, five were to be Work to install Kuparuk’s third central would allow development of the northern idled by the end of April or early May,leav- production facility,CPF-3, was to begin in portion of the field and help keep field pro- ing four rigs drilling new production wells June and finish in mid-October, with start- duction in excess of 200,000 bpd for the for ARCO, only one at Kuparuk, with an up of CPF-3 scheduled for late October. In December 1986 ARCO Alaska said that startup of the third central processing facility at Kuparuk had boosted oil pro- duction to nearly 300,000 bpd. Kuparuk production reached a new record high of more than 298,000 bpd on Dec. 2; production had been averaging between 250,000 and 260,000 bpd prior to startup of CPF-3. Cold weather also helped. CPF-3 has a capacity of 80,000 bpd; CPF-1 and CPF-2 each have a capacity of 120,000 bpd. “The addition of CPF-3 was part of the planned total development of the Kuparuk field,”Odom said.“It’s the last major facility for a while, following the installation of a seawater treatment plant and introduction of field-wide waterflood- ing last year.” Dana Dayton, manager of Kuparuk reservoir engineering, told the Alaska Spark in 1986 that “CPF-3 is the culmina- tion of a development era.This year is unique because of a feeling of transition which many of us have. “While we may have a big sense of sat- isfaction and accomplishment, we may also have some apprehension about the change from development to reservoir management,”she said. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 35 ARCO begins in-state module building Early West Sak pilot project concluded; major 3-D seismic shoot at Kuparuk, largest ever done by ARCO in U.S.

By KRISTEN NELSON Kuparuk exceeded their safety Lee Moench,ARCO’s manager Fahrenheit. Petroleum News goals for 1986, the company of facility engineering and Thirty-six new develop- said in early 1987, making construction.“We’re delighted ment wells were drilled at 987 at Kuparuk began them the leaders in safety per- to manufacture these modules Kuparuk in 1988. with announcement of formance for all producing within the state.” ARCO Alaska President Bill 1 conclusion of a two-year operations for ARCO Alaska. Wade said in February that West Sak pilot project. “These accomplishments New production ARCO Alaska would invest Operations at the pilot were achieved while reaching record in ‘88 more than $7 billion in Alaska facilities were suspended at record field production levels Kuparuk set a new produc- over the next 10 years, with the end of December. and during a period of aggres- more than $3 billion going to Harold Heinze, president of tion record of 320,069 barrels sive cost reductions,”said Jim a day Feb. 15. Larry Morse, development of known ARCO Alaska, said the pilot Weeks, Kuparuk operations reserves.At Kuparuk that project demonstrated that Kuparuk field manager, attrib- manager. uted the high production to would include more wells, conventional recovery meth- Employees at Kuparuk along with a small-scale ods can be used to produce additional wells which have worked for 1.3 million man been drilled in the field, and enhanced oil recovery project oil from West Sak. Efforts hours without a lost time with facilities under construc- would not focus on a plan to to the effects of a field-wide injury, improving the safety waterflood project. tion in Wasilla. recover the oil economically, record there by 65 percent Wade said that over the he said. “Cold weather also helps,” over the previous year.A lost he said.“We get more efficien- next 10 years the project “In addition to solving the time injury is one which could be expanded to cover technical problems, it’s obvi- cy from our gas-fired turbines keeps a worker off the job. when it’s cold.”Temperatures the entire Kuparuk field. ous that oil prices will have to The $7 billion also includ- improve, with some assurance at Kuparuk had been as low Process modules as minus 37 degrees of continuing at a higher level, to be built in Alaska see MODULES page 36 before our company would commit to development of the For the first time,ARCO West Sak,”Heinze said. Alaska awarded a contract for The company said ARCO fabrication of process mod- Congratulations On 25 yrs employees involved in the ules in Alaska.The contract Productivity and Success! West Sak pilot have been went to VECO; the modules, transferred to other operations for small scale enhanced oil at Kuparuk. recovery, will be fabricated in Air Liquide Alaska— Wasilla. 1987 safety goal a 20% “Historically, the oil indus- Any Gas, Any Time, Any Where improvement try has fabricated modules in the Pacific Northwest,”said ARCO Alaska workers at continued from page 32 to Kuparuk in 1985 and used for early production of CPF-3 STORIES area before the 1986 CPF-3 January 2007 e-mail that the sealift even arrived), I’m most biggest change he’s seen in 19 proud of the reduction in safety years is the “transformation and incidents and injuries over alignment from six ‘oil compa- time. nies’ at Kuparuk (three CPFs “Kuparuk is today a very times two shifts each) to one safe place to work compared to single company.” its beginning,”he said. As for the project he’s most What’s memorable about proud of:“While the accelera- Kuparuk? “The people: there’s tion of the CPF-3 drill sites always been a can-do spirit in ahead of CPF-3 separation facili- the people of Kuparuk.And Gas, Welding, and Cutting Equipt. Sales and Rental ties was very significant (1986 they’ve always risen to the occasion, no matter what the 562-2080 Anchorage / 452-4781 Fairbanks drill sites were fabricated in Call Toll Free: (800) 478-1520 Anacortes,Wash., and shipped challenge.” Page 36 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

continued from page 35 MODULES ed “initial development of the West Sak field,”he said. Although West Sak sands are shallow and contain heavier oil,Wade said:“Given the right

investment climate, we will ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY find the way to produce West Sak.”The first phase of full field development at West Sak could cost more than $2 bil- lion and begin the early to mid-1990s, he said. Major seismic shoot at Kuparuk ARCO said March 1, 1988, that it has started work on the largest three-dimensional seis- mic program every undertak- en in Alaska. The seismic was to be shot in Kuparuk. Kuparuk Operations Center Jerry Dees,ARCO vice pres- be completed in May of 1990, Dees said the 3-D seismic also will have synthetic mem- ident of exploration, said the was over a 270-square mile program would help in the brane liners installed in the 3-D exploration program is area, with more than 40 mil- on-going development and barrier berms. larger than any ARCO has lion seismic readings expect- delineation of Kuparuk. Water in the pits will be done in the U.S. ed to be taken during the trucked to disposal and water- The three year program, to study. Reserve pit flood wells. study under way “The water in most of our In response to new regula- pits generally meets drinking tions from the Alaska water standards,”said Rod Department of Environmental Hoffman, Kuparuk River unit Conservation, promulgated in permits director. September 1987,ARCO Alaska submitted plans to DEC to Ancient site outline two procedures it pro- found at Kuparuk poses to use to comply with A site which served early the reserve pit portion of the arctic hunters was discovered regulations. in the Kuparuk oil field in the Update:ARCO environmen- summer of 1988, Update: tal news, reported that the ARCO environmental report new regulations were a con- said in the fall of 1988. sensus of several years of The site could prove to be work by state government, as old as 6,000 years, accord- environmental groups and ing to John “Jack” Lobdell, an industry. archaeological consultant to The reserve pit regulations ARCO Alaska. require that new pits be open Lobdell discovered a simi- no longer than one year after lar site in 1982 — the oldest use is complete and that they recorded site in the coastal be maintained in a manner to Arctic, dating back some prevent leakage. 6,000 years.The 1982 site pro- One-third of the 114 vided the first evidence that Kuparuk reserve pits will be the peoples of the arctic closed out over a three-year coastal plain used the wet timeframe.A water manage- tundra region close to the ment plan and monitoring Beaufort Sea coast.The only program has been developed for the remaining pits, which see MODULES page 37 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 37 continued from page 36 the West Sak oil field in June after seeking refuge from the heat and mosqui- changes in Alaska’s severance tax laws. toes in the shade of the production facili- MODULES Bill Wade,ARCO Alaska president, said ties, while oil field workers perspired in known bone tools from that period were the action means delay of full-field pro- their rooms and slept on their sheets. also uncovered by Lobdell’s team. duction from West Sak, which had been Oil production declined as tempera- Lobdell said the new site has not been scheduled to begin in the mid-1990s. Full- tures rose—the turbines that compress excavated, but surface indicators suggest scale development will require a multi- natural gas for reinjection work better in it was originally used as a hunting station billion dollar investment by industry. the cold. Officials estimated that daily for ancient caribou hunters who traveled Wade said changes in the economic production rates fell by as much as 10 on foot pursuing the migratory herds. limit factor, ELF,were aimed at increasing percent. “Two of the artifacts suggest a high profi- severance taxes at Prudhoe Bay and “I’ve been at Kuparuk for six years ciency of stone-working technology,”he Kuparuk, but West Sak is also affected and this year, the hot weather has lasted said. because it overlies Kuparuk and plans a lot longer than ever before,”Richard The new site also appears to have call for producing both fields through Pulley, facility supervisor at CPF-2, told been occupied by Eskimo hunters at the the same facilities. Changes in the ELF the Alaska Spark, the company newslet- turn of the century. Lobdell found a blunt mean West Sak production would be ter.“Instead of two weeks, we’ve had six arrow point with a wooden shaft that penalized by higher taxes if it is com- weeks of really warm weather.” was used to hunt waterfowl. He also bined with Kuparuk production. On Aug. 8, Kuparuk was the hottest uncovered a rifle cartridge dating before “The West Sak project cannot afford place in Alaska.The temperature — 250 the 1900s. higher taxes,”Wade said,“nor can it afford miles north of the Arctic Circle — was a The newly discovered site, like the the cost of installing a duplicate set of scorching 80 degrees. 1982 site, is on a collapsed pingo. Pingos facilities.” are the result of ice wedges in the wet Wade said ARCO would also defer 1990: 30 more Alaska modules tundra surface and rise above the other- some drilling at Kuparuk.ARCO had In July 1990,ARCO Alaska announced wise flat surface of the coastal plain. planned to add a drill rig at the Kuparuk plans to build some 30 modules in Alaska field late this year, but those plans have over the next 16 months for projects at 1989 West Sak been cancelled, he said. Kuparuk and in Cook Inlet, with work test suspended expected to start in October. 1989 record temperatures ARCO Alaska suspended a 25 well Jerry Pollock, engineering manager for drilling and production test program at For six weeks in 1989, temperatures the Kuparuk and Cook Inlet fields, said soared on the North Slope, with caribou see MODULES page 38 Page 38 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field continued from page 37 Alaskan workers have proven they can in 1991, an increase of 8,000 bpd over build these modules at a cost that is com- the old mark, set in 1988. MODULES petitive with companies in the Lower “The performance of the Kuparuk the projects will include 22 modules for 48,”said Kathleen Schoen,Anchorage fab- field has been exceptional,”said ARCO two new well site production facilities at rication manager for ARCO Alaska.“This Alaska President H.L.“Skip” Bilhartz. Kuparuk, other modules to make environ- project provided work for 90 Alaskans. “Production is at record levels because of mental improvements to Kuparuk’s flare We’re committed to Alaska hire.And investment in new wells and facilities by system and modules to expand produc- we’re committed to building these mod- the owner companies, and because of tion at existing Kuparuk well sites. ules in-state.” the efforts of the ARCO employees who ARCO Alaska said it planned to build engineered, built, operate and maintain 1991: Alaska-built an additional 50 modules in Alaska over the field.” modules to North Slope the next two years for two new drill sites “Continuing investment should allow at Kuparuk as well as expansion of exist- us to keep production near present lev- ARCO Alaska began transporting 11 ing Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay drill sites. els for the next four years,”Bilhartz said. Alaska-made drill site production mod- When the field went online in ules from Anchorage to the North Slope Kuparuk: the 10th anniversary December 1981, engineers expected pro- in February 1991, and said travelers on duction to peak at 250,000 bpd with ulti- the Parks or Dalton highways may notice The Kuparuk River field marked its mate recovery of 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion extraordinarily large vehicles on the road. 10th anniversary in December 1991 with barrels of oil.Today, the company said, The 11 modules are destined for a new production records. reservoir engineers expect to recover up new drill pad in the Kuparuk field. Dec. 15 saw a single-day production to 1.8 billion barrels. “This is the first time that all of the record of 352,950 barrels of oil. As of Dec. 1, 1991, Kuparuk had pro- facilities for a new Kuparuk drill pad March 1991 saw a single-month pro- duced 827 million barrels of oil. have been constructed in Alaska,”the duction record of 10,068,358 barrels. At startup in 1991 Kuparuk was pro- company said. The field set new monthly production ducing from a 20-square mile area in ARCO Alaska first built two Alaska- records — highest average daily rate ever which ARCO owned all the leases.The made modules in Wasilla in 1988. Since produced for a given calendar month — field had one major production facility, then additional Alaska-made modules in nine consecutive months in 1991, five gravel drill sites, 40 producing wells have been built for both the Kuparuk February through October. and a 26-mile, 16-inch pipeline capable of and Prudhoe Bay fields. Kuparuk was also expected to set a delivering 80,000 bpd to Pump Station 1. “Alaska companies employing skilled new annual average daily production rate record of up to 309,000 barrels per day see MODULES page 39 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 39 continued from page 38 MODULES Shakley: Costs rising, output falling In 1991, the unit encompassed more Larry Shakley was Kuparuk field manager from 1991-1994. Kuparuk25 than 200 square miles, had three major “When I went to Kuparuk in 1991, costs were rising and pro- processing facilities, the seawater treat- duction was declining,”Shakley,now doing consulting work ment plant, 40 gravel drill sites, 367 pro- from Branson, Mo., said in an early 2007 e-mail. ducible wells, 285 injection wells and a “Working closely with the Engineering Department, we 24-inch pipeline capable of moving developed a program to extend the economic life of the 300,000 bpd. Kuparuk field called the ‘Kuparuk Challenge.’Over the next few In early 1983 Kuparuk became the years, costs were brought under control and Kuparuk produc- first North Slope field to use waterflood- tion increased,”he said. ing to increase oil recovery. “Each department and work group made positive contribu- Waterflooding is expected to account for tions to finding innovative ways to improve profitability and Stories from the field 1 billion barrels of the anticipated 1.8 bil- productivity at Kuparuk.The Kuparuk Challenge was a clear lion barrels recovered. demonstration of what can be accomplished when everyone understands what In 1991 the owner companies were needs to be done and works together to meet the objectives,”he said. evaluating new methods of enhanced oil And what was memorable about Kuparuk? recovery and drilling additional wells on “The people—they were some of the most innovative individuals I have had the the periphery of the field. pleasure of working with in my career at ARCO.They did not shrink from a difficult situation, but worked together to find solutions to problems that some people did Kuparuk wins big in stamp out waste not think were possible.They had a great sense of humor and always enjoyed show- An article in the December 1993 issue ing the Anchorage executives they could do the impossible.” of Kuparuk’s Crude Gazette by Jennifer Huvar and Barb Byrne congratulated Dick $2,000 awards at the corporate level. because the person operating the valves Hunt and Dick Grief, equipment support DeVore and Quesada, with the help of during training can completely shut the coordinators, and Doug DeVore and Ray local staff and summer interns, converted gas off to extinguish the fire immediately. Quesada, fire chiefs, for winning the the fire training props from diesel-burn- Hunt and Grief saved the company ARCO Alaska “Stamp Out Waste” awards ing to natural gas-burning apparatus. $39,280 by replacing one-time use oil fil- for significant environmental contribu- Natural gas, as a by-product of the field, ters in Kuparuk’s fleet of pickups and tions; the chiefs also won one of 10 has no cost and is much safer to use heavy equipment. Page 40 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Mid-‘90s see focus on cost cutting Large-scale enhanced oil recovery approved for Kuparuk; alignment agreement will make satellite developments easier

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

he margins at Kuparuk are thin, an JUDY PATRICK JUDY article in The Crude Gazette, the T Kuparuk newsletter, explained in 1994. “Anything and everything can impact our margins, including: OPEC, the state Legislature, production, operating costs and capital spending,”said Dan Lawrence. At a West Texas Intermediate price of $16 a barrel, the budget estimate for 1994, the margin on Kuparuk crude is 36 cents a barrel, he said. Unfortunately, oil prices had been $1 to $2 a barrel below budget so far in the year, so, he told Kuparuk readers,“you can see it’s not a favorable situation in which we find our- selves.” The price of crude oil impacted the entire company: a staff reduction of 750 Exploration drilling at Kuparuk was announced in June 1994. He said ARCO Alaska would continue Lisa Pekich reported that Kuparuk had ARCO Alaska President Ken Thompson to explore for new economic sources of started a scrap wood recycling project, said while the reductions were painful for oil in areas close to existing fields and collecting it in conexes and hauling it all employees, they were “necessary to available transportation and would seek back for donation to the Palmer enable ARCO to be a long-term competi- new ways to flatten decline of production Correction Facility where it was used as tor in the global market.” from existing fields, and even stem that fuel in wood-burning boilers. The company had 2,800 employees in decline. Pekich said the idea came from a sum- 1990; that number was down to 2,350 in mer intern working for the Drilling 1994; and the goal was 1,600. Recycling at Kuparuk Department. Thompson said reductions would One person’s garbage — scrap wood Benefits to Kuparuk? affect every area of the company, both — is another person’s fuel, said a 1994 In the first month of implementation, Anchorage and the North Slope. article in The Crude Gazette. see COST CUTTING page 41 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 41 continued from page 40 4,627 feet, the top 10 12-1/4 inch footage 1995 that the State of Alaska has records for the field. approved the large scale enhanced oil COST CUTTING The second well drilled, 1R-33, set field recovery project at Kuparuk. dumpster pickups from the warehouse records for measured depth and depar- LSEOR is expected to extend the life were cut in half — from once in two ture, they said.The well had a total depth of the Kuparuk field and increase its oil weeks to once a month.As of October, of 15,530 feet and the departure from the recovery by more than 200 million bar- she said, 10 full conexes had been surface location is 12,775 feet, with a rels. shipped to Palmer, saving some $15,000 total vertical depth of 6,946 feet, a mea- The project will use approximately in disposal costs. sured depth to total vertical depth ratio 100 million barrels of Prudhoe Bay natur- Also in 1994, Nancy Remmler, writing of 2.2. al gas liquids, which will be transported for the Kuparuk Athletic Club committee, They said the bottom hole of the well to Kuparuk through the Oliktok pipeline said KAC is offering the Kuparuk Winter is three miles from 1R pad, and between and reinjected at Kuparuk. Challenge, a triathlon, with participants two wells from 3H pad. Approximately 35 percent of the rowing 2,500 meters, biking for 8 kilome- The third well drilled, 1R-34, holds the NGLs will eventually be produced as part ters and finishing with a 2 mile run on field’s second longest MD at 13,570 feet of the Kuparuk crude stream. Changes in the treadmill, or the biathlon, with partici- with a departure of 10,467 feet. state tax regulations as they apply to pants biking for 4 kilometers followed by Zanghi also reported that the Kuparuk NGLs made the project more attractive to a 1 mile walk. drill site development group established ARCO and the other co-owner compa- Participants will be racing against the in 1994 to provide economic evaluation, nies. clock for a personal best, Remmler said. design and construction of wells and Some $135 million will be spent on facilities for Kuparuk development pro- 66 injection and production wells on the Drilling resumes jects combines functions of petroleum field and the companies will also invest Drilling has resumed at Kuparuk, James engineering, facilities, materials and $38 million in two new facility modules. Thantham and Mike Zanghi reported in drilling. LSEOR started as a small-scale pilot the April 1995 issue of The Crude He said the group intends to work project in 1989 on two Kuparuk drill Gazette. closely with Kuparuk production to meet sites and favorable results inspired plan- Parker 245 immediately broke field Kuparuk field objectives. ning for expansion. records, they said. The project received funding 1995: LSEOR approved approvals in March 1995. After being stacked for five months, by state; 1996 startup the rig drilled more 12-1/4 inch hole in a ARCO Alaska began testing miscible single 24-hour period than ever before, The Alaska Spark reported in October see COST CUTTING page 42 Page 42 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

continued from page 41 The project is expected to produce an oil wedge of Kuparuk EOR COST CUTTING 12,000 barrels per day in gas EOR on two of Kuparuk’s 1997, a wedge which will ‘my proud baby’ 42 drill sites in 1989, and field grow to some 40,000 bpd by *Tuan Ma, now a reservoir engineer with owners approved LSEOR and the turn of the century. ConocoPhillips Asia Pacific organization, was at Kuparuk expansion of the process to from 1985 to 2002. 20 drill sites in the southern 1997: drilling cost “Kuparuk EOR was my proud baby during those years. I half of the field. reduction was privileged to justify the Kuparuk small scale EOR pro- Tuan Ma, Kuparuk develop- In 1997 the Kuparuk drill ject and coordinate the implementa- ment EOR coordinator, said in site development team plans Kuparuk25 tion of the large scale EOR expansion the Alaska Spark in February to reach its long-term goal of project,”Ma said in a 2007 e-mail. 1997 that Kuparuk’s large reducing drilling development “It was fun participating in the scale enhanced oil recovery, costs by 30 percent, the company ad about Kuparuk’s ‘souped LSEOR,“charged out of the Alaska Spark said in late 1996. up natural gas’ with Janet Weiss and gate on schedule Sept. 1.” Since this quest started in Scott Kerr,”Ma said.“And who is not The Kuparuk EOR process 1994, the organization has impressed with the caliber of people mixes the field’s own lean gas taken a second look at how and assets that we have on the North with indigenous natural gas wells are drilled, applied some Slope.” liquids and imported Prudhoe existing technologies and *Jim Short was involved with Bay NGLs to make a “souped- developed some of their own Stories from the field Kuparuk permitting and environmen- up gas,”miscible injectant or technology along the way. tal issues during the 1980s and in MI, which is injected alter- Kuparuk wells have been 2006 returned to ConocoPhillips at Alpine. nately with water, acting as a redesigned to optimize perfor- “One big change is the large increase in volume and solvent and displacing most mance, maintain production complexity of regulations, along with associated proce- of the oil left behind by water rates and meet the team’s dures, monitoring and reporting,”he said in an e-mail.“Two injection toward producing low-cost, long-term goals. of the largest increases have come in air quality control wells. “The objective was cost permitting and spill response readiness. LSEOR is expected to add reduction through redesign of “The Kuparuk work force has always done an excep- another 200 million barrels to the wells and eliminating tional job at managing HSE responsibilities and meeting Kuparuk reserves. those things that are not new regulatory challenges,”Short said. The MI rate quadrupled absolutely necessary to devel- The project or team accomplishments Short is most from some 50 million cubic op the reserves,”said Mike proud of are sealift and startup of CPF-3 and the Kuparuk feet per day to 216 million Zanghi, Kuparuk drill site seawater treatment plant and “reduction in the footprint cubic feet per day in the development supervisor. size and elimination of reserve pits for new drill sites.” fourth quarter of 1996.The The size of the wells was As for field history, Short said many people now do not LSEOR helps blow down the reduced and in some cases know that “the ‘J’and ‘K’shifts at Kuparuk were named CPF-1 gas storage area by one string of pipe was elimi- after the first camp managers,‘Joe’ Morgan and ‘Kirk’ using more lean gas to make nated and they made comple- Barker.” MI, Ma said. tions simpler. The cost of drilling a well was reduced from an average of $1.6 million in 1993 to an expected $1.1 million in 1997. “We’ve gotten the side- track cost down to where for close to the same cost as a workover we can get a new well bore and direct the well to a spot in the reservoir where we really want it,” Zanghi said. The drilling schedule will also change in 1997, with the first half of the year spent on Kuparuk wells and the rest of the year spent on phase 1 of West Sak and the Tabasco reservoirs. By the end of 1996, see COST CUTTING page 44 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 43 9%!23 

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continued from page 42 COST CUTTING

Kuparuk will try its first multilateral well PATRICK JUDY using a new approach; three multilater- als have been attempted at Prudhoe Bay, and the Kuparuk team worked closely with Shared Services Drilling to learn Kuparuk Timeline 1969-2006 from that work. The Kuparuk team is also focusing on 1969 potential development of an ultra slim- Sinclair Oil and Sohio hole for injector wells. (BP) discover oil at the Kuparuk River oil field Satellite development accelerated on Alaska’s North As many as 50 satellite oil fields have Slope. been mapped on the North Slope, with combined accumulations of more than 1974 1.2 billion barrels — excluding West Sak, the Alaska Spark said in December 1996. Construction begins on the 800-mile trans- Kuparuk is anticipating a facility shar- Alaska oil pipeline from the North Slope to ing agreement before the end of 1996 to Valdez in April 1974. allow development of reserves that Pipe being laid wouldn’t otherwise be developed at Tonsina because the fields are too small to justify River. their own facilities. In 1996 six owner companies (ARCO, ALYESKA PIPELINE ALYESKA Chevron, Phillips, Mobil, BP and Exxon) from the Prudhoe Bay unit joined forces to study a group of satellites: Schrader Bluff, S Pad Kuparuk,West End/NEW 1977 Kuparuk, Sierra Nevada, Sambuca and Construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline Beechey State. was completed in May 1977. Kuparuk went a step further. In November 1996 ARCO and BP moved to Final pipeline weld near common equity on all their interests in Pump Station the Kuparuk area and announced an pate in the facility sharing agreement. 3, May 31, agreement to establish common equity The Kuparuk agreement is in its final 1977.. ALYESKA PIPELINE ALYESKA in 63 leases bordering the Kuparuk unit. stages and includes: cross-assigned The final agreement will include addi- acreage; a new operating agreement and tional acreage within the Greater special provisions for dealing with West Kuparuk Area. Sak and other heavy oil reservoirs. 1979 “Kuparuk has the advantage that 95 Three prospects are scheduled for percent of the field is owned by two exploration drilling in the winter of ARCO Alaska commits to the development companies,”said Kuparuk Development 1996-97 and additional 3-D seismic is of the Kuparuk River oil field. Sealift work Manager Scott Kerr.“So we took the planned for the western area of Kuparuk for main camp modules and the Kuparuk position that if we align our interest and the adjacent acreage. Central Processing Facility 1 gets under way. across the field; cross-assign all of our “We’ve often said that about half of acreage; agree in advance to facility the known oil resource in Kuparuk is 1981 access terms and some ability to go non- yet to be developed,”Kerr said.“An esti- On Dec. 13, 1981, the first Kuparuk oil hits consent; then we won’t have any more mated 5 billion barrels of oil is in place the trans-Alaska oil pipeline at Pump arguments over equity or agreements. and has yet to be exploited.That Station 1. Two days later, on Dec. 15, We’ll set everything up in advance and includes West Sak, but it also includes Kuparuk owners and the State of Alaska that’s what we’re doing.” other resources that we believe to be sign an operating agreement for the field. A number of satellites have been there.” identified within the Kuparuk area and The risk factor of bringing satellite State and the equalized equity agreement means fields online exists when the maximum Kuparuk officials sign operating that either company can move forward capacity for handling gas and water at agreement to explore and develop the satellites. each facility is reached.While the facili-

CONOCOPHILLIPS Though the majority of the area is ties have room to handle more oil, sever- owned by the two companies, other al have reached the maximum capacity companies have a smaller interest in the for handling gas, some have also reached field and have been invited to partici- capacity for handling produced water. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 45

1983 First West Sak/Ugnu pilot evaluation is done Tarn: Satellite in 1983. Construction of Kuparuk’s Central Processing Facility 2 and the Seawater Treatment Plant is under way, and CPF-1 waterflood starts up. At the end of the year development begins the Seawater Treatment Plant begins oper- ating.

1997 begins with announcement of discovery west Seawater Treatment of Kuparuk; testing yields in excess of 2,000 bpd Plant Courtesy

lation identified with 3-D seismic survey CONOCOPHILLIPS Conoco By KRISTEN NELSON Phillips Petroleum News data. The 1997 joint exploration program RCO Alaska said March 10, 1997, also includes a major 3-D seismic survey that oil had been found in two designed to better delineate known A delineation wells and a sidetrack in prospects and to identify new ones. the Tarn prospect west of Kuparuk. ARCO said that to date the Greater 1984 Testing of the Tarn 2 yielded a steady, Kuparuk Area joint exploration team has stimulated flow rate in excess of 2,000 The second processing facility at Kuparuk identified more than 10 satellite (CPF-2) begins operating in 1984. bpd of 38 degree API gravity oil from a prospects—including the West Sak sandstone reservoir discovered at a heavy oil accumulation—which together depth of 5,200 feet.Tarn 2 is the first could yield potential reserves of almost well drilled in this year’s three-well Tarn 1 billion barrels. exploration program. The agreement aligns all ARCO and CONOCOPHILLIPS ARCO and BP also announced the BP ownership of tracts within the signing of an alignment agreement that Greater Kuparuk Area at 58.5 percent will quicken the pace of oil exploration for ARCO and 41.5 percent for BP; own- in and around Kuparuk.The agreement ership of existing Kuparuk production is CPF-2 at Kuparuk. Courtesy ConocoPhillips provides for joint exploration and not changed by the agreement. appraisal of a 580-square-mile area that 1985 includes the ARCO-operated Kuparuk Tarn development announced River unit and adjacent acreage.The The Kuparuk Topping Plant is built to pro- On April 30, 1997,ARCO and BP agreement also allows production of duce diesel fuel for use at Kuparuk and announced plans to develop the previ- satellite oil accumulations through exist- elsewhere on the North Slope. ously announced Tarn oil discovery;Tarn ing Kuparuk facilities and clears the way Crude oil is adjacent to the southwest corner of for West Sak development. topping plant. the Kuparuk River unit. “This agreement will allow us to Pending issuance of local, state and unlock the full potential of the Greater CONOCOPHILLIPS federal permits, field construction and Kuparuk Area,”said Ken Thompson, pres- development will begin in early 1998 ident of ARCO Alaska.“It encourages with initial production of 10,000 to exploration, facilitates development and 15,000 bpd in late 1998 or early 1999. maximizes use of existing facilities. Evaluation of a 3-D seismic survey When we have exploration success it 1986 and date from a three-well, one-sidetrack will allow us to move new production delineation drilling program completed Divert tanks are installed in 1986. And quickly to market.” there’s a sealift for the construction of the earlier in April indicates that the north- “The agreement establishes a new, third processing facility at Kuparuk — ern area of Tarn contains estimated more cooperative way of doing business Central Processing Facility 3. proven and potential reserves of 50 mil- on the North Slope,”said Richard lion barrels. Campbell, president of BP Exploration Field development is estimated to (Alaska).“It will accelerate resource cost about $120 million. development, provide opportunities for ARCO Alaska, as operator, has started PATRICK JUDY Alaskans and enhance state revenues.” engineering for a one or two drill site ARCO said joint exploration drilling development that could include up to during 1997 may include two prospects 50 wells, along with a nine-mile pipeline in addition to Tarn — Cache and to move Tarn production to existing pro- Tabasco. Cache will test three prospec- cessing facilities in the Kuparuk field. tive horizons below the Kuparuk reser- Construction of drill sites, pipeline voir.A well drilled and tested in 1995 and necessary power lines will begin in indicated the shallow Tabasco prospect early 1998 with development drilling could be commercial.A planned 1997 well will test a separate Tabasco accumu- see SATELLITES page 46 Page 46 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

1987 continued from page 45 1998, that commercial production has started from the Tarn oil field nine miles The third processing facility at Kuparuk, SATELLITES southwest of Kuparuk. CPF-3, begins operating. during the summer of 1998. Tarn is producing 18,000 barrels of 38-degree API gravity oil per day from CPF-3 Kuparuk wins ARCO Environmental five wells and will reach production Achievement Award rates of approximately 25,000 bpd from

CONOCOPHILLIPS 20 wells, 12 producers and eight injec- Kuparuk’s aggressive pollution pre- tors, by year-end 1998. vention program was recognized in The field is expected to reach peak 1997 with the ARCO Environmental production of more than 30,000 bpd by Achievement Award.The program is also late 1999, ranking it in the top 30 pro- low cost, saving thousands of dollars ducing domestic oil fields. each year, said Kuparuk environmental Tarn is a 50 million barrel oil accumu- 1988 coordinators Barb VanderWende and Lisa lation and the second satellite accumula- Pekich in the Alaska Spark in August Small scale enhanced oil recovery (SSEOR) tion to begin production in the Kuparuk begins and 1Y/2Z Infill. The Kuparuk field 1997. River unit since December 1997.ARCO, reaches oil rate of 300,000 barrels of oil per Pollution prevention is the focus of BP and the other co-owners previously day for the first time. The STP clarifier starts the Kuparuk waste management strate- announced the startup of the West Sak up, and a 3D seismic shoot begins in 1988, gy, they said.“If no waste is generated, oil field. ending in 1991. nothing needs to be collected, transport- “For the industry and the state these ed or managed.” new satellite fields will mean new The key to the program’s success is reserves, new production and new state inclusion in core business processes, revenue,”said Kevin Meyers, president of with management support and depart-

CONOCOPHILLIPS ARCO Alaska.“For ARCO,Tarn is one ments including pollution prevention in more step toward achieving our Alaska their work processes. production goal of ‘No Decline After The nearest landfill is some 50 miles ’99.’” away and charges $1,300 per 27-cubic- “Satellite developments like Tarn play yard dumpster. an important role in BP’s plans to grow And hazardous waste has to be trans- our Alaskan production over the next ported more than 2,000 miles for han- few years and sustain it at more than 1990 dling. half-a-million barrels a day into the Waste reduction at Kuparuk ranges Kuparuk equity is finalized in 1990. future,”said Richard Campbell, president from reconditioning and reuse of laser of BP Exploration (Alaska).“They’re also 1993 printer toner cartridges to reduced pad an important new source of jobs and site to reclaiming and reuse of brine in Kuparuk reaches its business opportunities for Alaskans.” drilling. peak daily production Full development of the Tarn oil field rate of 339,000 bar- West Sak, Tarn production begins will include 40 wells from two drill rels. Kuparuk receives sites.The field was first deemed a com- the ARCO President’s Kuparuk Earth Energy 1997 and 1998 saw production start mercial discovery in March 1997. Field Safety Award for CPF-2, Partners Program Initiated at both West Sak and Tarn development is estimated to cost about and the Kuparuk spill response center is The West Sak oil field began commer- completed. $150 million. cial production from the field’s first pro- “These new oil fields have been 1994 ducing well Dec. 26, 1997. brought quickly on production because Production from the well, 200 bpd, is the Kuparuk Alignment Agreement In 1994 the Alpine field to the west of being slowly increased and is expected Kuparuk is discovered and delineated by allows production from satellite accumu- to reach the project’s production target lations like West Sak and Tarn to be ConocoPhillips and its partners. In of 300 bpd. September, Process Safety Management processed through existing Kuparuk Fifty West Sak wells, both production (PSM) is implemented. facilities,”said Kuparuk Senior Vice and injection wells, are scheduled for President Frank Brown. completion by early 1999.Work on the Alpine field began in October 1997. Nine wells 1998: Tabasco have been drilled and cased and will production to be increased

CONOCOPHILLIPS soon be in operation. “This effort will develop 51 million ARCO Alaska, BP Exploration (Alaska), barrels of new reserves and add near- Unocal, Chevron USA, and Mobil term production of 4,000 b/d gross in Exploration and Producing said Aug. 27, 1998, increasing to 7,000 b/d day gross 1998, that they have applied for state in early 1999,”said ARCO Alaska permission to begin commercial produc- President Ken Thompson. tion from the Tabasco oil field, a shallow, ARCO Alaska and BP said Aug. 24, viscous oil accumulation that overlies see SATELLITES page 47 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 47

1995 Thoughts from Alzheimer, Jepsen, Werner Kuparuk gets its own athletic club. • Dave Alzheimer, who has been an engineer at Kuparuk since 1985, noted two big changes:“The first is a substantial increase in the total number of people 1996 who work there.The second has been a steady growth in the application of bet- Large scale enhanced oil recov- ter technologies to operate a declining field as effectively Kuparuk25 ery (LSEOR) start-up at Kuparuk, and the as possible.” first ARCO/BP Alaska Safety Handbook Alzheimer said he is most proud of the progress in (ASH) is published. automation. “In 1985,”the said,“the board operators used pneumatic controllers to control each facility.Today we have a large installation of distributed and programmable logic based control systems to help operate the facilities and drill sites. CONOCOPHILLIPS This transition required a motivated work force willing to accept change and to contribute many good ideas to opti- mize operation of the facilities.” Stories from the field Kuparuk drill site • Scott Jepsen, ConocoPhillips Cook Inlet manager, worked at Kuparuk from 1982-1990 and from 1997-2000. 1997 Jepsen said the Kuparuk alignment agreements “allowed the unit to start In 1997 Kuparuk receives ARCO’s development of the satellites,”including the development of Tarn in 16 months. Environmental Achievement Award for pol- “It was on budget as well.” lution prevention, the first North Slope Environmental Field Handbook is published, • “What I find probably the most rewarding thing that I’ve … had in my and the BEAR employee safety process is career here was my long-term involvement with West Sak, and certainly the pro- initiated. In March the ARCO/BP Alignment ject itself and the people I’ve been involved with — the progress that’s been Agreement for Joint Exploration and made with that project,”said Mike Werner, greater Kuparuk geoscience, in the Appraisal is signed. West Sak begins pro- 2001 20th anniversary video. ducing in December. “It’s very rewarding after working with it on and off for about 17 years to 1998 actually see startup in 1997 of commercial production from West Sak.” The biggest change he’s seen is in how wells are drilled, how data is collected In 1998, Kuparuk and handled.Werner said he thinks West Sak demonstrates the impact of technol- receives ARCO Corp.’s ogy changes, especially in horizontal well technologies.“It’s totally different from Environmental Achievement Award the … work processes we had when I first started (and) it continues to change.” (FLIR system). Kuparuk satellites Tarn and continued from page 46 Kuparuk field.Tabasco is the second vis- Tabasco begin producing, and Kuparuk cous oil development in the Kuparuk receives its Arctic Green Star Certification. SATELLITES area, following startup of the West Sak oil 1999 field in December 1997. It is the third the Kuparuk reservoir on Alaska’s North In 1999, Kuparuk Slope. Kuparuk satellite oil field to begin pro- won the EPA PATRICK JUDY duction in the last year. Like the Tarn field Test production from a single Tabasco Region 10 well began May 13 and the well is pro- which began production in late July, Evergreen Award. ducing more than 2,500 bpd of 16.5 Tabasco will be produced using existing By April, the degree API gravity oil. Following approval Kuparuk infrastructure. Kuparuk unit had of commercial production by the state, “Development of these viscous oil produced 1.6 billion plans call for drilling up to 20 production reservoirs is possible because of new,low- barrels of oil, which and injection wells over the next few cost drilling and completion technologies was the initial years with production increasing to more and because we’re able to make extensive expected recover- than 10,000 bpd in 1999. use of existing Kuparuk drill sites and able for unit. By The new field has estimated reserves processing facilities,”Meyers said. August, Kuparuk reaches 1 million man hours worked with- of as much as 30 million barrels of oil. BP Exploration President Richard out a lost time injury. “This field could be larger,”said ARCO Campbell said,“Tabasco is one of a num- Alaska President Kevin Meyers.“A 3-D seis- ber of satellite accumulations in and 2000 mic survey indicates the Tabasco forma- around existing fields which will help to In 2000, the Kuparuk unit receives the tion extends beyond the area we are now grow and sustain North Slope production into the foreseeable future.” IOGCC Environmental Stewardship Award, developing.We are planning a delineation and in May, the Meltwater discovery is drilling program to determine the full 1999: cost restraint; BP buys ARCO announced. Meltwater is the fourth extent of the reservoir.” Kuparuk satellite. Tabasco was discovered in 1986 dur- ARCO Chairman and CEO Mike ing development of the underlying see SATELLITES page 48 Page 48 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

2001 The Kuparuk unit receives the PATRICK JUDY Meltwater discovered, Phillips Corp. Shield Award for Environmental in production Achievement in February, followed the next month by Palm does better than expected; new 3-D seismic planned for the Alaska Kuparuk, coiled tubing in-fill wells Governor’s Safety Excellence Award By KRISTEN NELSON cent interest. for CPF-2. In March the unit had produced Petroleum News Meltwater has the potential to be the 1.75 billion barrels of oil to date; by April it fourth Kuparuk satellite field to begin had handled 2 trillion cubic feet of forma- hillips Petroleum bought ARCO’s production.The West Sak field began tion gas. The first Palm exploration well Alaska assets in March 2000 and production in 1997, and Tarn and was drilled late that year. P named Kevin Meyers president and Tabasco began production in 1998. CEO of Phillips Alaska, which included “State areawide leasing and the appli- all of ARCO’s Alaska businesses, plus all cation of advanced 3-D seismic technolo- of Phillips’Alaska operations, including

JUDY PATRICK JUDY gy made this discovery possible in less the Kenai LNG plant. than one year,”said Michael Richter, The new company soon had some- Phillips Alaska vice president of explo- thing to celebrate, announcing the dis- ration and land.“This discovery marks a covery of Meltwater on May 2, 2000. new era in the Alaska oil industry.This is Meltwater was estimated to contain Phillips Alaska’s first discovery as a new Kuparuk flowlines about 50 million barrels of proven and company and the first discovery this 2002 potential reserves. century for the State of Alaska.” Meltwater North 1, about 10 miles “This discovery signals a bright start In 2002, the AOGCC expanded the area of south of the Tarn oil field in the Greater to exploration in the new millennium the Kuparuk River Oil Pool; and DNR Kuparuk Area, tested at 4,000 barrels per expanded areas of the Kuparuk River Unit and will also serve to move production day of 37-degree API gravity oil.A second infrastructure further south than ever and the Kuparuk Participating Area. Those exploration well and sidetrack, decisions allowed for more development. before. Our goal is to bring this new Meltwater North 2 and 2A, confirmed a field on production as quickly as possi- 2003 northern portion of the reservoir. ble.We will soon be working with The discovery was made on acreage Phillips on a field development plan,” Kuparuk satellite Palm’s three development purchased in June 1998 in the first wells are producing as much as 16,000 bar- said F.X.O’Keefe, exploration business areawide lease sale ever conducted by rels of oil per day. unit leader for BP Exploration (Alaska). the State of Alaska. Phillips holds a 58.46 percent interest; BP holds a 41.54 per- see MELTWATER page 49 West Sak pipeline construction continued from page 47 Alaska, its co-owners, contractors and CONOCOPHILLIPS the state government for efforts that SATELLITES have significantly reduced ARCO’s per- Bowlin told the Alaska Support Industry barrel operating and overhead costs Alliance’s annual conference in January since 1994. 2004 1999 that the company remains commit- ARCO had announced a $500 million two-year cost reduction plan in October ConocoPhillips announces plans for the ted to key projects on Alaska’s North 1998, the first major oil company to do largest-ever heavy oil development at West Slope despite the downturn in oil prices Sak and a reduction in the company’s capital so, Bowlin said.ARCO said it would elim- budget. inate 1,200 jobs, mostly administrative 2005 “Only the most competitive projects and technical in Los Angeles and Plano, The $500 million-dollar expansion of West in ARCO’s global portfolio survived the Texas, close some 20 small offices Sak viscous oil project 1J gets under way. By cut for 1999,”Bowlin said.These projects around the world and downsize others. July the Kuparuk unit has produced 2 bil- include Alpine, the Prudhoe Bay miscible Bowlin said there would be $330 mil- lion barrels of oil. injectant expansion or MIX project, and lion in upstream reductions over two years, with exploration spending 2006 the Point McIntyre enhanced oil recov- ery project. reduced by $150 million, mostly interna- Kuparuk Operations is nominated by OSHA Bowlin said ARCO Alaska was not hit tional, and production costs and over- in 2006 for its VPP Star certification for the as hard by cost reductions as other head to be cut by about $110 million. entire field, which will make Kuparuk ARCO units because it was already a On April 1, 1999, BP announced plans ConocoPhillips’ largest upstream entity to low-cost leader. He commended ARCO to acquire ARCO. receive such an award. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 49 COURTESY CONOCOPHILLIPS ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY

Meltwater drilling continued from page 48 energy from the reservoir the drill site, nine producers began in November 2002 and would move the crude oil and eight MWAG injectors. the field came online Nov. 14, MELTWATER approximately 25 miles to the The project came in under 2002, initially producing Production began from processing facility. budget and ahead of sched- 2,350 bpd of 26-degree API Stramp said 17 or 18 wells ule. gravity oil from a single well. Meltwater in late 2001 would be drilled initially, Development drilling Initial production began results assessed, and then the see MELTWATER page 50 from Meltwater at 3,000 bar- final eight or 10 wells drilled. rels per day Nov. 29, 2001. The reservoir at Meltwater is Meltwater was discovered in a little shallower than March 2000 and road, pad, Kuparuk, about 5,200 feet, power line and pipeline con- and conventional directionally struction were done over the drilled wells are planned. 2000-2001 winter season.The “We’ve got one central pad 50 million barrel field is in the and we’re going to develop southwestern portion of the several square miles of reser- Kuparuk River unit, some 27 voir by directionally drilling miles from central processing out in all directions around facility 2. the pad,”Stramp said. Ryan Stramp, Phillips The 2000 exploration well Alaska’s Meltwater develop- produced at 4,000 bpd during ment coordinator, said a short-term test. Meltwater is the most distant of the Kuparuk satellites — Palm exceeds expectations only 10 miles from Tarn, but Meanwhile, there was some 25 miles from produc- another name change for the tion facilities at Kuparuk. company: Phillips Petroleum The company’s process combined with Conoco in engineers had to determine if August 2002, creating crude oil from the Meltwater ConocoPhillips and, in Alaska, pad “would make it on its ConocoPhillips Alaska. own energy, or were we going The Palm discovery, devel- to have to put some pumps or oped as Kuparuk drill site 3S, some sort of processing” at had production of 29,000 bpd the pad. in July 2003, exceeding pre- They decided that with a development expectations of large diameter pipe at the a peak of 16,000 bpd by Meltwater pad the natural 2004.There are 17 wells at Page 50 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field COURTESY CONOCPHILLIPS ALASKA CONOCPHILLIPS COURTESY

Drilling at Palm continued from page 49 New 3-D at Kuparuk development manager, said in been used successfully at December 2004 that a new 3- Prudhoe Bay, Fox said,“but ConocoPhillips and BP MELTWATER D seismic survey would be the geology at Kuparuk makes announced expansion of West shot across the Kuparuk field. coiled tubing drilling more of The accumulation is esti- Sak on Aug. 10, 2004 (see West Kuparuk, he said,“is one of a challenge. …” mated to contain 35 million Sak story in this publication). the most complex fields in In addition to 3-D and barrels. Work continued on the the world from a geological coiled tubing, ConocoPhillips Time from spud of discov- main Kuparuk reservoir. perspective, from a faulting is “building a new full-field ery well to first production Matt Fox, then the compa- perspective — it’s just incred- reservoir simulation model at was 20 months. ny’s greater Kuparuk area ibly complex.You combine Kuparuk,”which, Fox said, is that with the fact that we’re challenging “because of the doing a miscible gas injection complexity of the field.”He enhanced oil recovery.You said the combination of new can’t go many places in the 3-D seismic, coiled tubing world and find anything more drilling and the new reservoir challenging than this.” simulation model “are going Because Kuparuk is so to allow us to get the most complex, there are still oppor- from Kuparuk, whether it’s tunities there, Fox said. through base management or The 3-D seismic shot in the through new development. winter of 2004-05 uses “new “We can’t stop Kuparuk technology that’s designed to declining,”he said,“but we allow us to image in the reser- can slow the decline down” voir where the oil and gas and fill in with West Sak are” allowing the company to developments. target sidetracks, he said. The combination of the new 3-D seismic and the More coiled tubing work reservoir simulation model ConocoPhillips is also and well performance will let experimenting with coiled ConocoPhillips identify areas tubing drilling techniques. where it doesn’t seem to be Coiled tubing drilling has see MELTWATER page 51 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page 51

Dobson, O'Dell, Hannon comment on changes • Engineer Stephanie Dobson, who now works in Anchorage “There are really too many team accomplishments over the with ConocoPhillips, worked at Kuparuk in 1992 and from years to single one out.Things such as producing over 130,000 1998-2004. bpd through a facility originally designed for 80,000, all of the “The biggest change that I’ve seen over the years about facility expansions and installations, and the new wells drilled Kuparuk is the attitude people both internally and externally and added to the field are all significant achievements. associate with the field. Kuparuk was always the ‘little brother’ “These types of efforts, along with engineering developments and innovations, like WAG flooding and MI EOR, and to Prudhoe Bay. Kuparuk25 “Kuparuk is more vulnerable to lower oil prices many of the innovative and creative drilling and well than Prudhoe,”she said. intervention developments, like coiled tubing drilling, The technological breakthroughs that got the field multilateral wells and improved artificial lift systems, to 2 billion barrels of oil,“and that’s despite oil prices are all accomplishments that have helped keep — this has really gotten people excited about it Kuparuk a great place to work for the 25 years we’ve again,”demonstrated by the level of investment at the been here on the slope.” field over the last five years. “It’s like the reservoir that could.” • Engineer Renee Hannon started working Dobson also said that in the early 1990s she Kuparuk from the Plano ARCO lab in 1982, she said in wouldn’t necessarily have predicted the enhanced oil Stories from the field the 2001 20th anniversary video.“We were working recovery and coiled tubing drilling work that have with the reservoir engineers up here on formation contributed to the field’s success. damage studies, trying to determine the best stimula- tion treatment of Kuparuk. • Brian O’Dell, now wells coordination supervisor for “Kuparuk was just an infant back then and it does turn out ConocoPhillips’ North Slope operations, has worked in the that fracturing is probably one of the best stimulations. Kuparuk group since 1982, with three years off for a Cook Inlet “Ten years ago, in 1992, I was working Kuparuk here in assignment in the early ‘90s. Anchorage and I was the lead of the geoscience group and “Some of the biggest and most significant changes I’ve seen Kuparuk back then was this energetic, bubbling teenager, pro- since I first started working here involve the evolution of ducing over 300,000 barrels of oil per day.… We were still Kuparuk from a pseudo-satellite field of Prudhoe Bay (the ‘other’ peripheral drilling and in-fill drilling back then. field on the North Slope) to a hub for the surrounding satellites “And more recently,I’m working Kuparuk now,another of Kuparuk (Alpine etc.) Kuparuk has grown to become a pro- decade later, 2001, and Kuparuk right now is very different. It’s duction and operations center for the Western North Slope like this laid-back, mature adult, getting ready for retirement. development.” However, it’s given birth to four or five satellites … (with) very nice character (that) help production rates.” continued from page 50 track up against that fault so because it’s quite a tight well cy, the ability to see it and that we pull the oil in.” spacing in Kuparuk anyway. then get after it with the MELTWATER Coiled tubing wells will What we need is the accura- coiled tubing.” getting all the oil it could “if also increase rates because there were no geological they are drilled as horizontal problems.”The seismic will sidetracks. identify opportunities, he Fox said that while coiled said, such as an oil trap “up tubing can’t achieve the later- against the fault, and then we al lengths a rotary rig can,“we can tale a coiled-tubing side- don’t need those lengths Page 52 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

JUDY PATRICK JUDY Kuparuk field animals & birds JUDY PATRICK JUDY JUDY PATRICK JUDY DALE TURNER DALE JUDY PATRICK JUDY

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Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page H1

Kuparuk discovery made by Sinclair at Ugnu No. 1 Development The Kuparuk oil field was discovered in 1969 announcement when Sinclair Oil and Gas and BP drilled the Ugnu No. 1 and tested 1,056 barrels per day of oil from the Kuparuk formation. Sinclair was an acqui- in 1979 sition target of Gulf and Although Kuparuk was discovered in 1969, shortly after Prudhoe Western. O.P.“Pen” Bay,it wasn’t until early 1979 that Atlantic Richfield announced it was Thomas, then Sinclair’s proceeding with field development.The initial drilling and development president, said it would not program, for the first processing facility,associated drill sites and have been a good deal for pipeline, was tagged at about $350 million.Average daily production of the company’s shareholders. some 60,000 barrels per day was expected by 1982 and, with additional “We moved quickly and investment, and production of 100,000 bpd by 1984. cut a deal with Atlantic ARCO said this was the first phase of what could eventually become Richfield to stave off Gulf and Western,”Thomas told a $1 billion investment among several compa- the ARCO Spark, the company newsletter, in a 1982 nies holding leases in the Kuparuk field; the interview. initial effort, however, was exclusively by Before Sinclair became a part of ARCO in 1969, it ARCO on ARCO leases. spud the Kuparuk discovery well on the North ARCO Chairman Robert O.Anderson said the company was moving Slope. ahead because it felt Alaska’s negative investment climate, created Sinclair’s Colville No. 1, drilled in 1965-66, had chiefly through adverse tax policies, showed some sign of improve- been a dry hole. ment.Anderson also said that further development beyond the initial At Ugnu No. 1, however, the company discovered phase would depend on the economics of the project and the future Kuparuk. investment climate in Alaska. Christopher Lewis related in a 2006 talk that Earlier in the year ARCO Sinclair’s desire for a successful well on the North The initial drilling and and Sohio had filed a suit Slope was tied to the possibility of acquisition by development program, for the first against the State of Alaska,chal- Gulf and Western.“The thinking was that if we would processing facility, associated drill lenging the constitutionality of spud a well, our stock would go up and Gulf and sites and pipeline, was tagged at an Alaska corporate income tax Western wouldn’t get us,”he said. about $350 million. that affected only the oil indus- Well named for nearby river try.“The lawsuit contends that the state’s present tax struc- As to why the well was named “Ugnu,”Lewis said ture discourages high-risk investments for exploration in Alaska’s fron- the Ugnuravik River ran through the area.“It was tier areas,”he said.“The Kuparuk represents a fairly well-known quantity, really a small stream. Ugnuravik was too long,”he with limited risk, which differs from the high-risk investments cited in said, so they called the well Ugnu. the lawsuit.” That name is carried today by the shallowest and most viscous of North Slope oil formations. Approval a challenge The fame of the Ugnu No. 1, however, is not the Just getting to development approval was a challenge. formation of that name, but as the discovery well for Landon Kelly,on the team that studied Kuparuk development in the Kuparuk River field. 1976, told the ARCO Spark, the company newsletter, in early 1981 that Lewis said the discovery was a surprise and led to even in 1978 they were unable to convince management to develop a reevaluation of the area’s geology. the field, considered “marginally economical.” “We were drilling at 6,000 feet without any hope The team tried again in 1979. By then rising oil prices and the of getting anything because we were downdip” from national need for domestic energy made Kuparuk attractive. the earlier well, a dry hole, he said.“I was having my “It’s very exciting, though the expanded scope is making everything dinner when the crew said we had had a break,”an hectic,”Kelly said. increase in the rate of penetration as the drill bit The scope had expanded because ARCO decided to get the field encountered porous layers of rock. started up by the April 1982 target date and at the same time expand “When I looked at the cuttings, I realized that we the project and develop the whole field. had an excellent oil sand,”Lewis said. The first phase, exclusively ARCO, targeted 20 sections, 20 square “Our surprise was complete when the test pro- miles.At the same time,ARCO put together a long-range plan for duced oil,”he said.“We recovered oil at a rate of Kuparuk and was working with owners of adjacent acreage to agree on about 1,000 barrels per day at that well.” a development plan. —Kristen Nelson The long-range plan amounted to a tenfold expansion and cov- ered some 200 square miles. —Kristen Nelson Page H2 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Getting there and other challenges 1979-81: initial Kuparuk development, including KOC, CPF-1, first drill sites, temporary and permanent bridges

By KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News

etting there is half the fun — or chal- lenge — could have been the motto G for initial construction at Kuparuk. First there were the sealifts and the struggle to get facilities modules to the North Slope in the short window each WASHINGTON GROUP COURTESY summer when there was an opening in the ice. And once modules reached the North Slope, they had to be moved from West Dock at Prudhoe Bay,across the Kuparuk River, to the new field. Initial Kuparuk facilities came in on three sealifts:The 1979 sealift brought in the warehouse, shop, vehicle storage and hanger.Workers were still installing those in the spring of 1980, along with doing pil- ing work for modules and laying more gravel in advance of the 1980 sealift, which Morrison-Knudsen Co. and NANA Development Corp. did construction for ARCO Alaska Inc. Here a drill would bring in the permanent base camp, rig bores hole for pipe supports on Kuparuk River crossing. sewage and power facilities. Final facilities for initial production only arrived in the 1981.” move sealift modules to the field. summer of 1981. ARCO would be field operator and A temporary river crossing had to be in The ARCO Spark, the company newslet- peak capacity of 200,000 bpd was planned place by August to move 1,000-ton equip- ter, said workers finished installing for 1986 — a big change from an original ment-bearing modules. If the river crossing Kuparuk’s 245-bed construction camp in projection of 60,000 bpd. wasn’t ready ARCO planned to move the the winter of 1979-80. Six development Jim Weeks, head of the Kuparuk project equipment overland in the winter. wells were drilled along with two group, told the ARCO Spark that expansion Weeks, who headed the Denver-based exploratory wells to confirm more high- altered the facilities thinking — the perma- Kuparuk project group which designed, potential Kuparuk areas. nent camp was upgraded and the capacity constructed and installed Kuparuk facili- for both more drill sites and more process- ties, told the ARCO Spark that three of the Project growing even as initial ing facilities was added. 12 culvert sections gave way June 9 and construction under way Pawelek worked unitization, reservoir over the next four days the rest of the cul- In 1980 ARCO was also putting togeth- engineering and facility design, while vert sections collapsed into the Kuparuk er an expanded long-range Kuparuk devel- Landon Kelly,the Kuparuk operations man- River. opment, a multibillion-dollar plan to ager, ran the camp and oversaw facility In a 2001 interview with Petroleum include several working interest owners in design and installation. News,Weeks talked about the bridge prob- lem — and about the challenges of getting the expanded 200-section development. Just getting there a challenge Three additional facilities (central process- Kuparuk developed. ing facilities 2 and 3, and the seawater One of the challenges of developing “From the start, Kuparuk had … the treatment plant) would be installed to Kuparuk was getting there from Prudhoe, reputation of being the down-to-earth, low- meet Kuparuk pipeline capacity of Prudhoe being the connection to the cost, sort of get-it-done-cost-effectively oil 200,000 bpd. Dalton Highway,known as the Haul Road, field,”said Weeks, the first project manager “We have drafted a unit agreement and and initially the necessary connection to for Kuparuk.“That was our mandate from a joint operating agreement for the devel- West Dock for module delivery,although the company.” opment which we’re sending to co-owners Kuparuk later had its own dock facilities at “We developed a lot of new technology so we can unitize the field,”North Slope Oliktok Point. at Kuparuk, and we broke the paradigm district Kuparuk engineer Jerry Pawelek At spring breakup in 1980, culverts at that you couldn’t start something up in the told the ARCO Spark.“We hope to begin ARCO’s $5 million Kuparuk River crossing same year you shipped it,”Weeks said. negotiations on this by late 1980 and we washed out, temporarily closing the hope to have the field unitized by early Kuparuk Spine Road — a road needed to see GETTING THERE page H3 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page H3 COURTESY STEVE HUBBARD COURTESY

Derrick for Doyon rig 9 on side; Kuparuk Operations Center under construction in background. continued from page H2 all day long and it’s not going to com- pact,”Weeks said. GETTING THERE At breakup, the gravel started to thaw The early challenges Kuparuk River a challenge out, the ice crystals melted “and the grav- • Scott Kerr, now managing direc- el lost its ability to push against the side tor of Norwegian Energy Co. in The bridge over the Kuparuk River shells of the pear-shaped culverts, and Stavanger, Norway,worked Kuparuk was a stumbling block. they collapsed.” for ARCO three times in his career. The sealift was due in August 1980 and Weeks and Kelly purchased all the sur- He was there in 1979-80, before materials for Kuparuk, including the plus 48-inch Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. field startup, logging the early power plant, would have to go across the pipe they could find in the state and used Kuparuk 1D pad wells and said in an Kuparuk River.A bridge was needed. it to install a temporary bridge to meet e-mail that there Weeks said plans were under way the the August sealift. were many chal- Kuparuk25 previous fall, but permits didn’t come lenges at through until after freeze-up — and the Permanent bridge needed Kuparuk, includ- gravel that would be used for fill already After getting the temporary bridge in ing “the disposal had ice crystals in it. place to meet the sealift, a permanent of gas, which we When the Kuparuk River floods at bridge was required before the field were working in breakup, it becomes three miles wide. could be started. 1979-80 even “We couldn’t justify building a three-mile Because of the strength of the before the field bridge, so what we did is build a bridge Kuparuk River breakup, pilings for a per- started produc- on the main channel” with two low-water manent bridge were massive: 42 inches in ing.” crossings on either side. Even the central diameter, so big they could not be made But the imme- Stories from the field bridge would be expensive, so they chose in the United States, they had to come diate problem in the type of “massive, corrugated culverts from Japan, lashed to the deck of a ship 1979 was keeping the trucks running. used for train tunnels.”The culverts were because of their diameter and 80-foot Kerr said his first memory of backfilled with compacted gravel. length. Kuparuk is just before Christmas in “The actual strength that held the load At Kuparuk, 54-inch holes, 100 feet 1979.“I was logging one of the D pad up on the top of the bridge was not the deep, were drilled for the pilings, but the wells, D-4, I think, and the Engineering culvert but the gravel,”Weeks said.The ship encountered a storm in the Gulf of group had purchased some pick-up gravel was key — it pushed against the Alaska and some of the pilings went over- trucks in Anchorage to use on the sides of the culverts, giving them the board. slope. strength they needed. Without the pilings in place water “But when we built the bridge the see CHALLENGES page H4 backfill was frozen.You can pound on ice see GETTING THERE page H4 Page H4 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field

continued from page H3 Tired vehicles used continued from page H3 GETTING THERE for faster module delivery CHALLENGES Ground speed was another problem: would fill the holes at breakup and thaw crawlers used at Prudhoe Bay only traveled “Operations did not have enough them out and the holes would collapse. a half-mile per hour and it was 40 miles vehicles so we had to buy our own,” The Japanese could get them more pil- from West Dock at Prudhoe to Kuparuk, so he said. ing, but not until September or October, the Kuparuk team used rubber-tired vehi- “Unfortunately the trucks were not and the holes needed to be saved: they cles with trailers that moved at five mph. winterized for use on the slope and if held a contest. “We got the modules set on the piling in they were left to idle they would John Larson, an ARCO engineer, sug- October of ’81,”Weeks said,and things slowly freeze so we had to leave the gested using some of the surplus 48-inch were going so well that he thought with logging truck every hour or so and pipe ARCO had bought for the temporary overtime they could bring Kuparuk up that drive the trucks up and down the bridge, cutting the pipe into 15-foot year.ARCO authorized “a couple million” road to warm the engines up. lengths and putting a cap on each sec- for overtime and incentives, and with a “It was bitter cold out. tion. construction force of 500 including 120 “What I remember was how still Weeks said they hung a section of ARCO employees working around the and absolutely beautiful it was out. pipe into each hole, insulated the area clock the field started up three months The northern lights were out and the between the 48-inch pipe and the 54-inch ahead of schedule, on Dec. 13, 1981. only lights around were from the rig hole and backfilled.“We essentially put a It was the first time that a major North and rig camp. I was totally alone but it plug in the top of the hole and froze it Slope facility had been started up in the was absolutely incredible.” back in place,”Weeks said. Forty holes same year as the sealift. • Tom Wellman was at Kuparuk at were saved.The replacement pilings came There were other innovations: at construction — when Jim Weeks was in and were put in during the fall of Prudhoe each turbine got its own module. struggling with the Kuparuk River 1981, allowing startup to take place at the “We couldn’t afford that luxury” at field. see CHALLENGES page H5 Kuparuk,Weeks said, and multiple tur- bines were put in a single module. Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page H5 JUDY PATRICK JUDY

continued from page H4 ried about lowering an engineer and losing he said in an interview for the 2001 20th the engineer — we’re afraid he’d fall on anniversary video. CHALLENGES the caribou and hurt the caribou!’” “My first trip up to Kuparuk, the road bridge and he talked about that in the com- About then,Wellman said, he could hear ended at 1A pad.And CPF-1 was kind of a pany’s 2001 anniversary video. Jim Weeks start to laugh in the back- combination between a bucket of bolts One day when they were drilling holes ground. and the real thing.And there was just all for the pilings for the permanent bridge he “It was all a setup just to get me riled.” kinds of activity going on — people run- got a call from the construction manager, • Jack Walker was at Prudhoe in 1981. ning everywhere, projects groups, opera- informing him that a caribou had fallen in He said in a 2001 interview for the tions groups kind of coming in and taking one of the piling holes. Kuparuk 20th anniversary video that he over … the plumbing that had been fitted “Right away,of course, I’m suspicious,” decided to drive over and see what was together to date. he said, knowing the area would have going on at Kuparuk. “And the drillers were, of course, run- been blocked off for the work. “And of course the road restrictions ning wild and it was quite a heyday.” “No, no,”the construction manager weren’t what they are today and I guess Kewin said “it was a real privilege to be insisted,“he’s kind of wedged down in the water was a little deeper than I expect- involved in Kuparuk from, almost from day there, we think at about 50 feet.”They had ed trying to cross the river and I thought I one. tried dropping a rope down, but were was going to get swept down to the “And when we first started over at afraid they’d kill the caribou trying to pull Beaufort Sea for a little bit, but we made it Kuparuk … we realized, if we’d come from him out. over there and looked around Kuparuk. Prudhoe, we’d made our first foray into the The guy was so serious,Wellman relat- And this would have been the summer Arctic and it had been a great success. ed, that he was starting to wonder how in before startup. … It was quite an experi- “But when we came to Kuparuk we the world he was going to explain the cari- ence.” knew we were going to have to work bou to the regulators. • Jeff Kewin “first got involved in under a different paradigm. “And then he tipped me off,”Wellman Kuparuk in 1981, which was right about “And from day one Kuparuk was set said.“He said,‘you know,we didn’t have the time of unitization and when field up, the whole spirit of Kuparuk was to any engineers on site and we’re not wor- development was just blowing and going,” have fun at what you did.” Page H6 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field COURTESY WASHINGTON WASHINGTON GROUP COURTESY

Morrison-Knudsen Co. and NANA Development Corp. did construction for ARCO Alaska Inc. This is a view of the storage area and pipe fabrication shop. Production begins 3 months early Kuparuk comes online in December ’81 from 5 gravel drill sites in 20-mile square ARCO-owned area

BY KRISTEN NELSON production would begin April 1, 1982. in the initial development and said agree- Petroleum News Paul Norgaard, president of ARCO Alaska, ment was expected soon among lease- said ARCO was able to speed up comple- holders in the entire Kuparuk field to roduction began at the Kuparuk tion by giving the project priority status. operate the field as a unit, with ARCO as River oil field on Dec. 13, 1981, three Initial production was expected to operator. P months ahead of schedule. average 80,000 barrels per day from 40 Ultimate recovery, with successful When the board gave the go-ahead in wells on five gravel drill sites. waterflood, was expected to range 1979 to spend $450 million for initial ARCO owned all the state oil and gas field development, it was expected that leases in the 20-square mile area included see PRODUCTION page H7

Early wells were Kuparuk formation, in spite of names First the discovery well was the “Ugnu define the limits of the Kuparuk accumu- Posey said it was a multiple effort: they No 1” — Ugnu being the shortened name lation. were trying to find the edge of the field, of a nearby river — though it is the dis- Jim Posey,who worked on the startup “at the same time do unitization and get covery well for the Kuparuk reservoir, not team, talked about that delineation this thing online by 1981, which was the the shallower Ugnu. drilling in the 2001 20th anniversary target.” Compounding the confusion, Kuparuk Kuparuk video. The names have changed. delineation wells were called “West Sak,” “We wanted to know how far the field Production wells at the field have although they were extended before we filed the papers with names beginning with Kuparuk River ARCO Alaska officials told the Alaska the state, so we had them drill the Unit, followed by the satellite name — Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in perimeters of the field, starting with West Tarn,Tabasco, Meltwater or West Sak,if 1981 that between 1969 and 1980,ARCO Sak No. 13, 14 … and going up to West appropriate — and then by a pad and and other companies drilled 25 wildcat Sak 20,”said Posey,who worked on uniti- well number. and extension wells in an attempt to zation for the startup team. —Kristen Nelson Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field Page H7 continued from page H6 PRODUCTION Newer technology between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion at Kuparuk barrels of oil. The Kuparuk River oil field was devel- But by the end of November 2006, oped later than Prudhoe Bay and benefit- Kuparuk and its satellites (Tabasco, ed from newer technology. Tarn,West Sak and Meltwater) had Most obvious is the reach of drilling produced 2.19 billion barrels of oil ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS COURTESY rigs — which dramatically reduced the according to Alaska Oil and Gas size of drill sites. Conservation Commission records. In 1970, a Prudhoe Bay drill site was 65 ConocoPhillips said Kuparuk acres and from that 65 acres drill rigs reached the 2-million-barrel milestone could access a subsurface area two miles in April 2004; the company said more across. than 2.6 billion barrels of an estimat- A 1980 Kuparuk drill site was 24 acres ed 6 billion barrels of original oil in and rigs could access an area three miles place are expected to be recovered. across. By 1985, Kuparuk drill sites had Expansion, waterflood dropped to 11 acres, but the subsurface ARCO said at startup that plans reach was five miles across. called for two additional central pro- By 1999 at Alpine, a drill pad of 13 duction facilities over the next four acres could access a subsurface area eight years, boosting production to 250,000 miles across. bpd.That production level was based The reservoir was also different: on waterflood. Expansion plans called Kuparuk is at about 6,300 feet, compared for the second CPF to go into opera- The central production facility is the heart of Kuparuk. Two-hundred foot communications to 8,000 to 9,000 feet at Prudhoe Bay. tion in 1984, boosting production to tower soars over the Kuparuk oil field’s central And the net thickness, the “pay” at about 200,000 bpd.A third facility, production facility which will process up to Kuparuk, is about 50 feet compared to scheduled to start up in 1986, would 80,000 barrels a day of crude oil for delivery to nearly 600 feet at Prudhoe. boost the total to 250,000 bpd. By the the trans-Alaska pipeline at Prudhoe Bay. The Kuparuk field, 40 miles west of Prudhoe Bay, The sizes of the reservoirs are about time the field was fully developed it went into operation in December 1981. the same: some 200 square miles. was expected to cost the owners $10 Based on remaining recoverable billion. 1983, came on before waterflood at reserves,ARCO estimated in 1981 that Natural gas produced at Kuparuk Prudhoe in 1984. Kuparuk was probably the second largest along with the crude oil would be re- The net sand thickness averages field in the United States, behind Prudhoe. injected into the reservoir until gas about 50 feet in the Kuparuk reservoir sales occur “sometime in the future,” compared to nearly 600 feet at ARCO said in 1981.At 80,000 bpd, Prudhoe, and average initial well rates Original owners still ARCO expected the field would pro- for Kuparuk are expected to be 1,500 duce 35 million cubic feet of natural bpd, compared to 10,000 bpd at represented gas per day.A portion would be used Prudhoe. Ownership of the Kuparuk River unit for fuel at the field and about 25 mil- has remained the same over the years — lion cubic feet a day re-injected. Peak higher than projected only some of the names have changed. A 16-inch pipeline was constructed In 1981,ARCO expected Kuparuk Field operator ARCO Alaska reported to carry Kuparuk oil to Pump Station production to peak in 1986 at eight other companies involved in 1981 1 of the trans-Alaska pipeline. 250,000 bpd. Production actually unitization discussions: BP Alaska Facilities included a 96-bed opera- peaked at 322,000 bpd in 1992. Exploration, Sohio Alaska Petroleum and tions center delivered on the 1980 Kuparuk has been the second Union Oil Company of California were the summer sealift and opened late that largest U.S. oil field. In 2005, however, other major owners; smaller interests were year with dining and kitchen facilities, it dropped to third, behind the held by Exxon, Mobil, Phillips Petroleum, a theatre, card and game rooms and Wasson field in Texas, in ranking by Chevron U.S.A. and Amoco Production. an exercise room. the U.S. Department of Energy’s All, through purchase or merger, are CPF-1, the first of three central pro- Energy Information Administration still involved: cessing facilities, was delivered on the based on liquids proved reserves from Phillips bought ARCO Alaska, then 1981 sealift. estimated 2005 field level data. merged with Conoco and today operates Kuparuk oil is heavier than Prudhoe ranked first. the field as ConocoPhillips Alaska. Prudhoe, 23 degrees API vs. 27 Based on volume produced in Both Sohio and Amoco are now part of degrees API for Prudhoe. Kuparuk oil 2005, Prudhoe would still be first, BP. is 1.6 percent sulfur, the company Mississippi Canyon Block 807 (Mars- Chevron has purchased Unocal. said, compared to 0.5 percent sulfur Ursa) in the Gulf of Mexico would be Exxon and Mobil have merged. for Prudhoe crude. second,Wasson third and Kuparuk Kuparuk waterflood, begun in fourth. Page H8 Celebrating 25 years of production at the Kuparuk River oil field