Oil and Gas Potential of the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska

By

K.J. Bird (U.S. Geological Survey)

The U.S. Geological Survey has re-evaluated the quantities of undiscovered petroleum that might exist beneath the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska (NPRA). This is the first complete reevaluation of the petroleum potential of the NPRA in more than 20 years and it is part of an ongoing USGS evaluation of North Alaskan petroleum potential. It is intended to provide an updated, scientifically based perspective of petroleum potential at a time when petroleum infrastructure has reached the eastern edge of the NPRA, while within the NPRA, exploration is in progress, discoveries have been announced, and federal lease sales are scheduled.

Significant factors in this resurgence of interest in NPRA petroleum potential are several discoveries within the last 10 years just east of NPRA of high gravity, low-sulfur oil in Brookian and Beaufortian reservoirs with depositional trends that extend into the NPRA; new seismic technology that is able to identify subtle stratigraphic traps; and dramatic reductions in both cost and environmental disturbance related to oil development and production that make these relatively small (by Prudhoe standards) accumulations economically attractive.

With a team of specialists covering a wide range of disciplines, our re-evaluation consisted of new field work, seismic reprocessing, gravity, magnetic, fluid-flow, and structural modeling, and analysis of sequence stratigraphy, petroleum systems, and hydrocarbon mass-balance. The assessment is based upon deposit simulation modeling in geologic plays. We report estimates of in-place, technically recoverable, and economically recoverable resources. Results with supporting data are planned for publication on-line and as hard-copy summary of digital publications. 

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.