Renee C. Hannon¹, Dean A. Gingrich¹, Scott R. Redman¹, Kenneth P. Helmold¹, Wayne J. Campaign¹, Craig B. Dotson¹
(1) ARCO Alaska, Inc, Anchorage, AK

Abstract: The Discovery and Delineation of a New Alaskan Reservoir: The Alpine Field, North Slope, Alaska-U.S.A

The discovery of a new North Slope oil accumulation, the Alpine Field, has sparked renewed interest in Alaska, particularly in the adjacent National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA). The Alpine Field, owned by ARCO Alaska and Anadarko, contains 429 million barrels of recoverable reserves and 1 billion barrels of oil-in-place. Following the discovery in 1994, the field was delineated over a two-year winter drilling program consisting of six wells, four sidetracks and a 3D seismic survey. This Jurassic marine sandstone contains 40-degree API gravity oil, and averages 50 feet in thickness at a depth of 7000 feet subsea.

Oil production for this exciting new discovery will begin in the year 2000. Relative to other producing North Slope fields (supergiant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk); the Alpine Field is a small stratigraphic trap and remote from existing infrastructure. If conventional approaches to prospect delineation, environmental assessment, facility design and access were used, this project would be unattractive. By using new approaches and applying modern techniques to address old problems, the delineation/development team was able to reduce costs and shorten field startup time to make the project economic.

Methods used include; 1) use of advanced seismic techniques to delineate the reservoir and predict reservoir thickness, 2) integration of the seismic, well and core data into the depositional model interpretation and reservoir simulation, 3) early and continual assessment of the environmental and wildlife impacts of development in this sensitive area, and 4) use of facility design and access not previously tried in the Alaska arctic.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana