Strategies For Energy Independence Alaska Natural Gas PDF Download

The US Department of Energy was directed in the National Energy Strategy to establish a federal interagency task force to identify specific technical and regulatory barriers to the development of five undeveloped North Slope Alaska fields and make recommendations for their resolution. The five fields are West Sak, Point Thomson, Gwydyr Bay, Seal Island/Northstar, and Sandpiper Island. Analysis of environmental, regulatory, technical, and economic information, and data relating to the development potential of the five fields leads to the following conclusions: Development of the five fields would result in an estimated total of 1,055 million barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and total investment of $9.4 billion in 1992 dollars. It appears that all five of the fields will remain economically marginal developments unless there is significant improvement in world oil prices. Costs of regulatory compliance and mitigation, and costs to reduce or maintain environmental impacts at acceptable levels influence project investments and operating costs and must be considered in the development decision making process. The development of three of the fields (West Sak, Point Thomson, and Gwydyr Bay) that are marginally feasible would have an impact on North Slope production over the period from about 2000 to 2014 but cannot replace the decline in Prudhoe Bay Unit production or maintain the operation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) beyond about 2014 with the assumption that the TAPS will shut down when production declines to the range of 400 to 200 thousand barrels of oil/day. Recoverable reserves left in the ground in the currently producing fields and soon to be developed fields, Niakuk and Point McIntyre, would range from 1 billion to 500 million barrels of oil corresponding to the time period of 2008 to 2014 based on the TAPS shutdown assumption.