North Slope production increases in December, ending a two-month dip in October and November

December North Slope production was up 11,368 barrels per day, or b/d, in daily average production ending a dip in output in October and November.

Usually production on the North Slope increases as cold weather sets in but a decline in the Prudhoe Bay field, for unspecified reasons, brought the total output down.

Now things are back to normal mid-winter levels at Prudhoe Bay and for the slope in general. December production averaged 481,167 b/d, up from October and November.

The December total was still down by 15,668 b/d, however, in a year-over-year comparison against December 2022 output levels.

State officials and many business leaders watch oil production levels on the slope because they affect royalty and tax revenues paid to the state.

The long-term trend has been for a decline in production although this can be offset, for revenue at least, if oil prices rise.

Total production of crude oil, natural gas liquids and condensates averaged 481,167 b/d through December, up from 469,799 b/d and 468,500 b/d averaged in October and November.

The late fall slump came mostly in the Prudhoe Bay field, the largest on the North Slope, which averaged 295,805 b/d in October and 304,782 b/d in November, but increased to 314,104 b/d in December, which is a normal production level for the field in mid-winter.

Prudhoe Bay is operated by Hilcorp Energy and is owned by Hilcorp, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

Two other producing fiels on the slope, Alpine and Lisburne, produced at normal mid-winter rates and were generally even with November production in 2022, the year prior.

However, the Kuparuk River field held roughly even in December compared with November at 99,987 b/d but dropped year-over-year from a 104,387 b/d average in November, 2022. ConocoPhillips is the owner and operator at Kuparuk but its production total includes output from two separate nearby fields, Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq, which are owned and operated by Eni Oil and Gas.

Kuparuk is adjacent and to the west of Prudhoe Bay.

The Alpine field, farthest west of the North Slope producing fields, averaged 47,929 b/d in December, up by 1,863 b/d from its November average but down from October and from December a year prior in 2022.

ConocoPhillips is the owner and operator of the Alpine field, and its production totals include output from smaller nearby producing sites such as GMT-1 and GMT-2 in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A. where raw crude oil is shipped by pipeline to the oil and gas processing facilities in the Alpine field.

The small Lisburne field in the eastern Prudhoe Bay area held relatively steady in December at 19,289 b/d, a rate similar to that in October and November as well as in November, 2022. Lisburne is owned and operated by Hilcorp Energy and its total included liquids from small adjacent reservoirs such as Endicott and Point McIntyre.

In general the “legacy” North Slope fields are gradually declining in production, which is expected, and officials at the state Division of Oil and Gas expect this to continue over the next two years until new projects now in development come on line.

Those include Nuna, a small undeveloped deposit in the Kuparuk field, as well as Pikka, a new field now under construction by Australia-based Santos Ltd. and its Madrid-based partner, Repsol.

Santos is expected to have Pikka’s phase one in production in mid-2026 with a peak rate of 80,000 b/d. A second phase is planned that would bring Pikka up to about 120,000 b/d.

Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips is ramping up construction this month at its large Willow project in the NPR-A. The company made its Final Investment Decision for Willow Dec. 22 following decisions by an Alaska federal court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals turning down legal challenges by conservation groups.