National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska

The USGS completed an assessment in 2002 of the 23 million acre National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska and estimates that there are over 10 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 61 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  In some other areas, such as the OCS and ANWR, estimates are based almost entirely on geological information.  In the NPR-A there is data from 136 test wells drilled by the Navy and USGS between 1944 and 1982 in addition to the geological data.  There are some known oil and gas deposits due to the test well data and most of the oil in the NPR-A is expected to be in smaller accumulations of 30 - 250 million barrels. 

The BLM has held four lease sales in the NPR-A (Northeast - 1999 and 2002 and Northwest - 2004 and 2006), which yielded about $236 million in high bids for roughly 3 million acres.  There is another lease sale scheduled for the Fall of 2008 for about 2.6 million additional acres.

The NPR-A area has had no commercial production yet.  Some commercial discoveries from the previous leases that are working their way through the process are expected to come on-line in the next few years.  The Mooses Tooth unit, located near the eastern border of the reserve and the huge Alpine oil field, is expected to begin production in 2012.

The proximity to the extensive infrastructure already in place on the North Slope makes it cost effective to develop the smaller accumulations expected in the NPR-A.  The USGS estimates that oil can be produced in NPR-A for between $22 and $30 per barrel.

Additional NPR-A Resources

Natural Gas Estimates

BLM NPR-A Home

NPR-A Exploration Activity

NPR-A Lease Map

Legacy Well Summary Report

BLM Ok's Unit Agreement for Mooses Tooth