BP Exits Alaska,Leaving Behind Trillions of Cubic Feet of Untapped Gas Reserves

摘要

BP has sold all of its interests in Alaska,including the iconic Prud-hoe Bay field,to privately held Hilcorp Energy for as much as $5.6 billion,in the process leaving behind its share of the 30 trillion cubic feet of stranded gas on the North Slope.Hilcorp will take over BP's entire Alaska portfolio-both in the upstream and the midstream-where the UK major produces 74,000 barrels of oil per day.The upstream asset packages includes a 24% interest and operatoirship of the massive but aging Prudhoe Bay field,where the bulk of the gas reserves lay.The sale marks the end of an era for BP,which tracesits legacy in the state back to 1959.Predecessor company Arco drilled the first appraisal of the Prudhoe Bay field in 1968 and the company helped build the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System ahead of first production from Prudhoe in 1977.The field has gone on to produce more than 13 billion barrels of oil,but its bounty of associated gas has been reinjected and not brought to market while a decades-long dream of a gas pipeline and LNG export project has not come to fruition(NGW Sep.22’14).The state's commitment to that project looks increasingly tenuous under the administration of Gov.Michael Dunleavy,who has made clear that the state can't afford to go it alone(NGW May20’19).