Anchorage Daily News

North Slope oil production averaged 552,114 barrels per day in August, down 15 percent from July, a drop primarily due to planned shutdowns at the Alpine field and on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

More than half of the decline was due to the annual turnaround at Alpine, which is run by Conoco Phillips Alaska and is the third biggest producer among the North Slope fields.

Conoco spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said in August that the field would be offline for about two weeks for planned maintenance, coinciding the trans-Alaska oil pipeline shutdown.

On Sept. 3, Lowman added that the work included overhaul of the two main turbines at Alpine.

Alpine was averaging some 117,000 barrels per day of oil production early in August. Production dropped below 60,000 barrels a day on Aug. 9 and below 25,000 the next day. Alpine had no production Aug. 11-21, state Department of Revenue statistics show. Production began to ramp back up slowly and the field averaged more than 100,000 barrels a day from Aug. 24 through the end of the month.

For the month, the field averaged 61,227 barrels a day, just over half of its July average.

The summer's second major maintenance shutdown of the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline to Valdez also affected North Slope production.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. shut down the pipe Aug. 16-17 for two major tasks: installing about 1,700 feet of new mainline pipe at Pump Station 2 and replacing a value in a pipe section at the Valdez tanker port that receives mechanical "pigs" used to clean and assess the pipeline.

Alyeska also shut down the pipeline June 28-29 for work at Pump Station 9, among other tasks.

OTHER FIELDS: UPS AND DOWNS

Among the North Slope fields, Prudhoe remains the top producer, a position it has held since it started up in 1977.

Prudhoe averaged 237,951 barrels a day of oil production in August, down 8 percent from July. The production slid when the trans-Alaska pipeline shut down, and it includes oil from small satellite fields called Aurora, Borealis, Midnight Sun, Orion and Polaris.

The Kuparuk River field averaged 121,331 barrels a day last month, down 7 percent. This total includes oil from the Tabasco, Tarn, Meltwater and West Sak, as well as from the new Oooguruk field that Pioneer Natural Resources just started. Oooguruk oil is processed at Kuparuk.

Kuparuk production slowed during the trans-Alaska pipeline work and as some ongoing maintenance is being done at the field, Lowman said.

The Milne Point field averaged 31,276 barrels a day in August, up 6 percent.

The Endicott field averaged 46,053 barrels a day, up 2 percent.

In Cook Inlet, oil production averaged 13,282 barrels a day during August, down 1 percent.

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