Sub-500: TAPS throughput drops in 2019
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2019-06-26/sub-500-taps-throughput-drops-201906/26/2019
Measured on the state calendar, Alaska North Slope oil production is about to be at its lowest level since the first days after startup of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
North Slope crude production averaged 499,103 barrels per day through June 24 for the 2019 state fiscal year, which ends June 30. The last time North Slope wells pumped that little oil was 1977 when oil first started flowing through TAPS in late June; production averaged 10,500 barrels per day in 1977, according to Revenue Department figures.
It jumped to 789,600 barrels per day in 1978 and peaked at 2.1 million per day in 1988.
Daily North Slope production dipped to about 501,000 barrels per day in 2015 but that was followed by two years of increases, which were celebrated by industry and state officials, as it was the first instance of production growth on the North Slope since 2002.
The 499,103-barrel average for 2019 is unlikely to improve much in the last days of the month as the combination of warm weather and scheduled maintenance makes summer the least productive season for companies on the Slope.
State production analysts in the Department of Natural Resources expected the average daily throughput to decline in their latest projection, but not this much. The Spring 2019 Revenue Forecast released in March pegged fiscal 2019 North Slope production at 511,460 barrels per day. Actual production has been off by about 2.4 percent....