Impact of Surveillance Fields on Crude Oil Production in the United States

摘要

This report presents an analysis of crude oil production trends in the US and focuses on the declining production from old, large fields (surveillance fields). Oil fields in the Alaska North Slope and the federal offshore areas have furnished the substantial increases in crude oil production necessary to maintain a near constant rate of production for the US during the past few years. Total US production has varied less than 1% (plus or minus) since the end of 1979. Excluding the Alaska North Slope and federal offshore areas, the remaining US oil production has continued to decline despite accelerated drilling during the years of 1980 through 1982. The North Slope fields currently producing are the Prudhoe Bay and the Kuparuk River. Production from the Prudhoe Bay field is expected to maintain the current rate of about 555 million barrels of oil per year for the next few years. The Kuparuk River field began producing in 1981 and produced about 32 million barrels of oil in 1982. Oil production from federal offshore fields grew by 5 million barrels in 1981 and increased another 33 million barrels in 1982. Data for the federal offshore fields indicate another 35 million barrel increase in 1983, reaching an annual production of 350 million barrels. Some 1606 OLD surveillance fields accounted for almost 75% of the total US oil production in 1982. Without production from Prudhoe Bay, the remaining 1605 OLD surveillance fields experienced an annual composite production-decline rate of 6.8% for 1977 through 1979, and 4.1% for 1980 through 1982. Approximately 11% of the US oil production for 1982 came from 6315 NEW fields that began producing after 1973. OTHER fields account for the remainder of the production. This category includes old fields that did not qualify as surveillance fields, lease condensate extracted from the gas produced from oil and/or gas fields, and new fields where production is not available at the field level. (ERA citation 10:008292)