For the third year in a row, Alaska’s crude oil and lease condensate reserves declined, with 186 million barrels of production, and significant downward revisions. There were 123 million barrels in positive changes due to upward revisions, acquisitions and field extensions, but no new field discoveries or new reservoir discoveries in old fields. However, Alaska still is in 4th place (behind Texas, North Dakota, and the Gulf of Mexico) at 2.9 billion barrels of proved reserves, or about 8% of the U.S. total.
Alaska’s natural gas proved reserves declined from 9.7 billion cubic feet to 7.4 billion cubic feet – a 24% decrease. Production of 289 billion cubic feet was dwarfed by downward revisions of 2.4 trillion cubic feet. EIA attributes this significant reduction to a decline in “associated-dissolved natural gas proved reserves, the result of deteriorating well performance in certain crude oil fields.” On the positive side, though much less significant, acquisitions and extensions added 366 billion cubic feet, and there was 1 billion cubic feet of new reservoir discoveries in old fields.
See Full Story @Alaskanomics.com
image credit PaulColors.com
