THE LINK: JULY 2023 34 $1B invested to help spur increased oil output at Milne Point Hilcorp Energy has outlined ambitious plans for new Alaska crude oil drilling and development in presentations on May 11 to an Alaska legislative committee in Juneau. The Houston-based major independent is a producer on the North Slope and Cook Inlet, in south Alaska. Luke Saugier, senior vice president of the company’s Alaska division, said Hilcorp is on track to add 20,000 b/d of new oil production in the next few years, with its new Raven production pad in the Milne Point field contributing 10,000 b/d to 15,000 b/d of that. Milne Point was producing 18,500 b/d in 2018 when Hilcorp became operator in 2018, Saugier told the Senate Finance Committee. The field is now producing about 41,000 b/d and is expected to reach 60,000 b/d with current plans underway, he said. To do this, Hilcorp has invested $1 billion at Milne Point in drilling, facility upgrades and applications of new technology like a polymer flood to produce heavier crude oil. In 2020, Hilcorp took over operations and part ownership of the large Prudhoe Bay field, the largest on the North Slope, at a time when the field was declining, Saugier said. Through a program of repairing older wells and upgrading facilities the company increased production two years in a row. It has also now resumed drilling at Prudhoe Bay with two rigs working in the field and one rig in Milne Point. “When we started there were no rigs operating in either Milne Point or Prudhoe,” Saugier said. More rigs are being added with as many as six rigs expected to be working in the next few years. Hilcorp expects to add 70 million barrels of new oil reserves in 2023 and that is expected to reach 100 million barrels in 2025, he told the legislators. Much of the expansion at Milne Point is coming from the Schrader Bluff viscous oil formation, which is heavier and cooler than conventional Hilcorp plans to ramp up North Slope efforts Photo by Judy Patrick Hilcorp expects to add 70 million barrels of new oil reserves in 2023 and that is expected to reach 100 million barrels in 2025.
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