North Slope oil production averaged 572,967 barrels per day in August, an increase of 0.73 percent from the July average, the state Department of Revenue reports.

Production from the BP-operated Prudhoe Bay field averaged 225,949 barrels a day, an 11 percent drop from July. Prudhoe production includes oil from the small Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris satellites nearby.

Prudhoe production in August was held down by summer maintenance projects. Production averaged in the low 200,000-barrels-a-day range early in the month but rose to more than 260,000 at the end of August.

The Conoco Phillips-operated Kuparuk River field averaged 149,353 barrels a day in August, up 4 percent from July. Kuparuk produces primarily from the Kuparuk formation and also from satellites at Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and West Sak.

The Lisburne plant, which handles oil from the Lisburne, Point McIntyre and Niakuk fields, averaged 30,394 barrels a day, up 11 percent.

The Milne Point field averaged 27,277 barrels a day, up 13 percent.

The Northstar field averaged 22,675 barrels a day, up 4 percent.

The Endicott field in the Beaufort Sea showed the strongest jump in production, averaging 13,206 barrels a day compared with 3,055 in July. The field was down in July because BP was replacing the production control system.

Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska's Oooguruk field had production approaching 8,500 barrels a day in July, according to a state report.

In Cook Inlet, production had been slowed for months due to shutdown of the Drift River Terminal, where many inlet platforms delivered their oil. The average of 3,041 barrels a day in August was up 7 percent from July. Chevron has restarted some platforms and production should rise.

North Slope oil production peaked in 1988 at some 2 million barrels a day. Cook Inlet oil production peaked in 1970 at more than 227,000 barrels a day.

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