North Slope Natural Gas: Potential Markets and Future Development

By

E.D. Attanasi (U.S. Geological Survey)

The apparent prospects for a stable long-term market for the North Slope gas may have weakened as the short-fall of gas supplies faded in the lower 48 states during the winter of 2000/2001. Although marketed lower 48 gas production peaked a quarter century ago at just over 22 TCF, some project that lower 48 production will increase to almost a third above that peak by 2020. An evaluation of the plausibility of these forecasts is discussed. We then consider the potential size and stability of the market for North Slope gas in the lower 48 states. In addition, an earlier market analysis (Attanasi, 1994, Resources Policy, p 247–255) for the export of North Slope gas in the form of LNG is updated. 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90008©2002 AAPG Pacific Section/SPE Western Region Joint Conference of Geoscientists and Petroleum Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, May 18–23, 2002.