BLM sets 2019 NPRA lease sale
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will hold its annual lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on Dec. 11. Three hundred and fifty tracts covering 3.98 million acres will be offered for competitive bid. High-potential coastal areas, which are also ecologically-sensitive, are excluded from the sale. This could change in next year’s sale. BLM told us a draft of its revised NPR-A land management plan will be released later this month. That is likely to open up areas excluded from leasing, but will also spark more political controversy. The federal sale will occur two days after the state of Alaska offers unleased state land east of the NPR-A in the central North Slope as well as state submerged lands in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. That sale is planned Dec. 9.

Several oil discoveries have been made in the area in recent years and two small projects are now producing and two more are in development, all by ConocoPhillips.

Russia ships oil via Bering Strait
Two oil tankers carrying about 1.5 million barrels of crude from the port of Primorsk in western Russia, have sailed to China in recent weeks, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. This is the first time for crude oil shipments since at least 2011, the Northern Sea Route Information Office said. Shipments of commodities and other goods across the top of Russia doubled to about 20 million tons last year with liquefied natural gas, or LNG, dominating. The concern over crude oil shipments through the Bering Strait is on the poor state of Russia-U.S. communication and cooperation on oilspill containment and cleanup for the Bering Strait region.

Slope oil production drops again
North Slope oil production dropped 27,066 barrels per day in September and October compared with the same months of 2018, according to Alaska Department of Revenue production data. Crude oil and natural gas liquids are included in the data. NGLs are blended with crude shipped through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Field operators produced an average of 478,756 barrels per day in September and October, compared with 505,822 barrels per day for the same months of 2018, according to the data. Much of the decline can be attributed mainly to the large, mature Prudhoe Bay field and a schedule of maintenance shutdown for Prudhoe processing plants which resulted in sharply lower output in the late summer months. In September, Prudhoe was down to 242,809 barrels per day compared with 277,181 barrels per day in September 2018. Major facility maintenance in the field was completed in mid-September. BP is the Prudhoe field operator. In October, with production facilities back online Prudhoe was up to 270,658 barrels per day but still below October 2018, when Prudhoe averaged 283,754 barrels per day.

Other North Slope fields performed roughly on par with 2018 for September and October, although still slightly down. ConocoPhillips achieved a small increase in the Kuparuk River field where it is operator. The Alpine field, also ConocoPhillips operated and the Lisburne field, where BP is operator, were both slightly down in output.

CD-5 output a bright spot
One bright spot is continued strong production performance at CD 5, a satellite of the Alpine field west of Prudhoe Bay, which is currently averaging about 37,000 barrels per day. When it was brought on line several years ago the project was expected to peak at 16,000 barrels per day. However, one of three producing wells in ConocoPhillips’ newest project, GMT-1, is lagging due to reservoir problems, the company said in a briefing with analysts. Overall, slope production is expected to average about 500,000 barrels per day through to the end of the year.