Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2005
U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1732–A
Oil and Gas Resources of the Arctic Alaska Petroleum
Province
By David W. Houseknecht and Kenneth J. Bird
Abstract coveries, along with the economic benefits of applying innova-
tive exploration and production technologies, evolving indus-
The Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, encompassing try demographics, rising oil and natural-gas prices, and the
all the lands and adjacent Continental Shelf areas north of the anticipation that northern Alaska natural-gas resources may
Brooks Range-Herald arch, is one of the most petroleum-pro- become economic and marketable through a planned pipeline,
ductive areas in the United States, having produced about 15 have stimulated a renewed intensity in leasing and exploration
billion bbl of oil. Seven unitized oil fields currently contrib- activity. Until recently, this activity was focused mostly on
ute to production, and three additional oil fields have been State onshore and offshore areas of the central North Slope, as
unitized but are not yet producing. Most known petroleum well as the Federal offshore area immediately adjacent to the
accumulations involve structural or combination structural- Federal-State boundary. Exploration in these areas has been
stratigraphic traps related to closure along the Barrow arch, a mostly for oil in relatively large structural or combination
regional basement high, which has focused regional hydrocar- structural-stratigraphic traps similar to that at the Prudhoe Bay
bon migration since Early Cretaceous time. Several oil accu- field (fig. 1), where approximately 12 billion bbl of oil has
mulations in stratigraphic traps have been developed in recent been produced and more than 3 billion bbl of reserves remains
years. In addition to three small gas fields producing for local (table 1; Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, 2006).
consumption, more than 20 additional oil and gas discoveries Discovery of the 500-million-bbl Alpine oil field in 1994
remain undeveloped. (fig. 1) on the Colville River delta and success at the nearby
This geologically complex region includes prospec- Tarn oil field (>100 million bbl recoverable) stimulated inter-
tive strata within passive-margin, rift, and foreland-basin est in exploration for stratigraphic traps. As a result, explora-
sequences. Oil and gas were generated from multiple source tion since 1995 has progressed westward and southward from
rocks throughout the region. Although some reservoired oils the main productive fairway into areas where new oil fields in
appear to be derived from a single source rock, evidence for stratigraphic traps may be discovered.
significant mixing of hydrocarbons from multiple source rocks The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of
indicates a composite petroleum system. Both extensional and known petroleum accumulations in the Arctic Alaska Petro-
contractional tectonic structures provide ample exploration leum Province and to review recent assessments of undis-
targets, and recent emphasis on stratigraphic traps has dem- covered, technically recoverable, conventional petroleum
onstrated a significant resource potential in shelf and turbidite resources. Those resources associated with continuous-type
sequences of Jurassic through Tertiary age. (unconventional) petroleum accumulations, such as low-
Recent estimates of the total mean volume of undiscov- permeability basin-centered gas, gas hydrates, and coal-bed
ered resources in the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province by methane, are not addressed.
the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Minerals Management
Service are more than 50 billion bbl of oil and natural-gas
liquids and 227 trillion ft3 of gas, distributed approximately Geologic and Tectonic Setting
equally between Federal offshore and combined onshore and
State offshore areas. The Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province extends about
1,100 km from the United States-Canadian border westward to
the maritime boundary with Russia, and from 100 to 600 km
northward from the Brooks Range to an arbitrary boundary at
Introduction the approximate edge of the Continental Shelf (fig. 1; Bird,
2001). Although the edge of the Continental Shelf provides
The Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, one of the most a well-defined physiographic boundary for the province, this
petroleum-productive areas in the United States, currently is edge does not represent a geologic limit to potential petroleum
an exploration target for new additions to reserves. New dis- resources. The offshore part of the province is characterized
Oil and Gas Resources of the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province
by a relatively narrow (100 km wide) shelf in the Beaufort Sea 1994). Contractional deformation in Tertiary time created the
(Scherr and Johnson, 1998) and a broad (600 km wide) shelf fold-and-thrust belt that extends northward from the Brooks
in the Chukchi Sea (Sherwood and others, 1998). The prov- Range and is expressed topographically as the foothills belt
ince is bounded on the south by the Brooks Range-Herald arch (Moore and others, 1994).
orogenic belt and offshore to the north by the passive conti-
nental margin of the Canada Basin (fig. 1).
The principle geologic features of the Arctic Alaska Stratigraphy
Petroleum Province are summarized in figure 1. The Chukchi
and Arctic platforms are remnants of a late Paleozoic through Although the stratigraphic record of the Arctic Alaska
early Mesozoic south-facing (present coordinates) continental Petroleum Province extends into the Precambrian, rocks with
margin. These features are separated by the Hanna trough, a a potential for petroleum accumulations are dated at Missis-
north-trending structural sag characterized by extensional nor- sippian and younger (fig. 2). The traditional grouping of the
mal faulting, in which thick layers of sediment accumulated rocks into tectonostratigraphic sequences, as proposed by
mostly during the Devonian(?) and Mississippian and into the Lerand (1973) and modified by later investigators, emphasizes
early Mesozoic. Sherwood and others (1998) considered the tectonic history, provenance, and genetic relations. This sec-
Hanna trough to be a failed rift. The Barrow arch and adjacent tion briefly describes the tectonostratigraphic sequences north
hingeline fault zone formed during Jurassic to Early Creta- of the Brooks Range.
ceous rifting. The oceanic Canada Basin and flanking passive The Franklinian sequence mostly includes Devonian and
margin resulted from this rifting event. At the southern margin older sedimentary rocks representing diverse origins and a
of the Arctic and Chukchi platforms and overlapping in time complex geologic history. These rocks have been buried and
with rifting to the north, an arc-continent collision created metamorphosed beyond the thermal stage of oil preservation
the Brooks Range, the adjacent Colville foreland basin, and, across most of Arctic Alaska, and so they are considered to be
presumably, the Herald arch orogenic belt (Moore and others, economic basement.
North Chukchi Canada Basin
H ingelin PA
Basin (oceanic)
e
S
fa
S
ul
IV
tz
Beau
on
fort S
E
Hanna trough
M ea
Ba
e
A
r ro
RG
chi
w
orm
IN
ea
Ar
Chuk
S tic
c
platf
Arch
i
k ch pla
hu PB 100 m
tf
HE C m i t o f c o orm
RA North li ntr
act AF
LD ion
a
1002 Area
Colvill NPRA l str
uctures
e
s
ARC
E
(fore
te
G
land) in ANWR
Unite
Bas
sia
N
Sta
H
A
Cana
R
Rus
BRO
ted
d Sta
OKS
em
aska
Uni
da
Syst
s-Al
tes
line
Tr a n
Hope Basin 0 100 200
Pipe
KILOMETERS
Figure 1. Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, showing locations of principal geologic features. AF, Alpine oil field; ANWR, Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge; NPRA, National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; PB, Prudhoe Bay oil field. Modified from Bird (2001).
AGE
(m.y.) SW Gubik Fm. NE Known and
EXPLANATION
potential oil
Sagavanirktok Fm. source rocks
Nonmarine rocks
BROOKIAN
CENOZOIC
Sagavanirktok Fm. ? Canning Marine shelf
Fm.
C re e k Fm. Marine slope and basin
66 P ri n c e
d e r B lu
ff F m . C a n n in g
Tuluvak Fm. S c h ra
e Fm. Condensed marine shale
Nanushuk Fm. Seabe
Hue Shale
CRETACEOUS k Fm. Carbonates
To r o
BEAUFORTIAN
Fortress GRZ GRZ Metasedimentary rocks
*
Mountain
Fm. Pebble shale unit
Lower Cretaceous unconformi ty
Kuparuk Fm. Granite
146
Hiatus or erosion
Etivluk Group
JURASSIC Kingak Shale
Kingak
200 Sag River Ss.
Shublik Fm. Shublik
ELLESMERIAN
TRIASSIC
Sadleroch it
251 Group
PERMIAN
299
PENNSYLVANIAN Lisburne Group ? Lisburne
318
ro u p Endicott
FRANKLINIAN
MISSISSIPPIAN E n d ic o tt G
(gas)
359
. . .. . ..
PRE- . .. . . . . . . . Basement . .. . . . . . . . . .
MISSISSIPPIAN . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .
. .. . . . . .. . . .
Geologic and Tectonic Setting
50 percent) reflects the exceptional reservoir
quality along the Barrow arch of the main siliciclastic units in The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Miner-
the Ellesmerian sequence, including the Kekiktuk Conglomer- als Management Service (MMS) have recently reassessed
ate, Ivishak Sandstone, and Sag River Sandstone (fig. 2). undiscovered petroleum resources for most of the Arctic
Oil and Gas Resources of the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province
Alaska Petroleum Province; the results are summarized in data from Beaufortian reservoirs indicate that the accumula-
figure 4 and table 4. tions contain less oil and more gas and condensate than previ-
Estimated mean volumes of undiscovered oil and gas ously estimated, mostly on the basis of hydrocarbon composi-
resources for NPRA (fig. 4), including the adjacent State off- tion in the Alpine accumulation just east of NPRA (fig. 3). If
shore area and Native holdings within NPRA, are 11.99 billion these new data are representative of undiscovered Beaufortian
bbl of total liquid petroleum (crude oil and natural-gas liquids) reservoirs in NPRA, less crude oil and more natural-gas liq-
and 73.03 trillion ft3 of gas (nonassociated and associated) uids and associated gas may be present (fig. 4; table 4).
(table 4; Bird and Houseknecht, 2002; Schuenemeyer, 2003). USGS-estimated mean volumes of undiscovered oil and
Subsequent to that study, industry has reported data from new gas resources for the central North Slope (fig. 4), located east
discovery wells in the northeastern part of NPRA. The new of NPRA and west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
176° 172° 168° 164° 160° 156° 152° 148° 144° 140° 136°
74°
Beaufort Shelf
72° Oil 8.2 (0.4 - 23.2) BBO
Gas 27.7 (0.6 - 72.2) TCF
Chukchi Shelf
Oil 15.4 (2.3 - 40.1) BBO
Gas 76.8 (10.3 - 209.5) TCF
a
Russi
Central North Slope
1 ANWR 1002 Area
Oil 4.0 (2.6 - 5.8) BBO
BA Oil 10.4 (5.7 - 16.0) BBO
Gas 33.3 (23.9 - 44.9) TCF
C19 Gas 3.8 (0.0 - 10.9) TCF
70° 20
18
Nati o n a l P e t r o l e u m 9 6 7 12
4 13 22
Res e r v e i n A l a s k a 1617 8 15
14
NPRA
Oil 10.6 (6.7 - 15.0) BBO 10
Gas 61.4 (40.4 - 85.3) TCF 21 11
24 233 5
Arctic National
2 Wildlife Refuge
68°
Canad
a
Hope Basin
Oil 0.2 (0.0 - 0.6) BBO
Gas 3.8 (0.0 - 15.0) TCF
0 100 200
66°
Arc t ic Cir cl e KILOMETERS
Figure . Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, showing resource estimates (mean and range of 95- to 5-percent-confidence-level
volumes) of undiscovered oil (in billions of barrels [BBO]) and gas (in trillions of cubic feet [TCF]) for Federal onshore and offshore
assessment areas. Estimates for onshore areas (National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska [NPRA], central North Slope, and 1002 Area of
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR]), which include adjacent State offshore area and Native holdings onshore, are from U.S.
Geological Survey, where “oil” includes crude oil only and “gas” includes nonassociated gas only. Estimates for Federal offshore area
(Hope Basin, Chukchi Shelf, and Beaufort Shelf) are from the U.S. Minerals Management Service, where “oil” includes both crude
oil and natural-gas liquids and “gas” includes both nonassociated and associated gas. Red letters and numbers, known (discovered)
petroleum accumulations outside unitized oil fields, keyed to table 2. Dashed rectangle, area of figure 3. Data from Schuenemeyer
(1999, 2003), Bird and Houseknecht (2001, 2002), Bird and others (2005), and U.S. Minerals Management Service (2006).
Summary
Table . Estimated mean volumes of undiscovered, technically recoverable petroleum in conventional
accumulations for areas in the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province.
[Estimates for onshore and State offshore areas versus Federal offshore area are listed separately because of differences in the
assessment methods used by the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Minerals Management Service. See figure 4 for 95- and 5-per-
cent-confidence-level volumes. ANWR, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; NPRA, National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska]
Oil and natural-gas liquids Natural gas
(billion bbl) (trillion ft)
Crude Natural- Total Nonassociated Associated Total
oil gas liquids gas gas gas
liquids
Onshore and State offshore areas
NPRA 1
10.56 1.43 11.99 61.35 11.68 73.03
Central North Slope 2
3.98 0.48 4.46 33.32 4.20 37.52
ANWR, 1002 Area 3
10.36 0.19 10.55 3.84 4.76 8.60
Subtotal 24.90 2.10 27.00 98.51 20.64 119.15
Federal offshore area
Chukchi Shelf 4
–– –– 15.38 –– –– 76.77
Beaufort Shelf4 –– –– 8.22 –– –– 27.65
Hope Basin4 –– –– 0.15 –– –– 3.77
Subtotal –– –– 23.75 –– –– 108.19
Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province onshore and offshore areas
Total –– –– 50.75 –– –– 227.34
1
Bird and Houseknecht (2002).
2
Bird and others (2005.
3
Bird and Houseknecht (2001).
4
U.S. Minerals Management Service (2006).
(ANWR) and including the adjacent State offshore area, are bbl of total liquid petroleum and more than 227 trillion ft3 of
4.46 billion bbl of total liquid petroleum and 37.52 trillion ft3 gas (table 4). Total estimated mean volumes of undiscovered
of gas (table 4; Bird and others, 2005). USGS-estimated mean oil and gas resources are approximately equal for both onshore
volumes of undiscovered oil and gas resources for the 1002 and offshore areas. These total estimated mean volumes lack
Area of ANWR, including the adjacent State offshore area and the ranges of uncertainty inherent in assessments of undis-
Native holdings on the ANWR coastal plain, are 10.55 billion covered resources. The mean estimates for each assessment
bbl of total liquid petroleum and 8.60 trillion ft3 of gas (table area, including oil and gas volumes at the 95- and 5-percent-
4) (Schuenemeyer, 1999; Bird and Houseknecht, 2001). confidence levels, are listed on figure 4. Ranges of uncertainty
MMS-estimated mean volumes of undiscovered oil and cannot be aggregated to total resources for the entire Arctic
gas resources for the Federal offshore area (fig. 4) are (1) for Alaska Petroleum Province because of differences in the
the Chukchi Shelf at water depths less than 100 m, 15.38 bil- assessment methods used by the USGS and MMS.
lion bbl of total liquid petroleum and 76.77 trillion ft3 of gas;
(2) for the Beaufort Shelf at water depths less than 500 m, 8.22
billion bbl of total liquid petroleum and 27.65 trillion ft3 of
gas; and (3) for the Hope Basin, 0.15 billion bbl of total liquid Summary
petroleum and 3.77 trillion ft3 of gas (table 4; U.S. Minerals
Management Service, 2006). Approximately 15 billion bbl of oil has been
The total volumes of undiscovered oil and gas resources produced from the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province,
in the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province can be approximated and proven reserves are estimated at more than 7 billion
by summing all mean volumes, yielding more than 50 billion bbl of oil and 35 trillion ft3 of gas. Most oil production is
10 Oil and Gas Resources of the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province
from Ellesmerian reservoirs, consisting of Mississippian Bird, K.J., Houseknecht, D.W., Attanasi, E.D., Moore, T.E.,
through Triassic marine carbonate and marine to nonmarine Nelson, P.H., Potter, C.J., Schenk, C.J., Schuenemeyer, J.H.,
siliciclastic deposits that accumulated on the shelf of a Verma, M.K., Saltus, R.W., Phillips, J.D., Charpentier, R.R.,
passive continental margin. Lesser production has been from Cook, T.A., Klett, T.R., and Pollastro, R.M, 2005, Oil and
Beaufortian reservoirs, consisting of Jurassic through Early gas assessment of central North Slope, Alaska, 2005: U.S.
Cretaceous marine siliciclastic deposits associated with Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2005–3043, 2 p. [URL http://
the rift opening of the Canada Basin, and from Brookian pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3043/fs2005-3043.pdf].
reservoirs, consisting of Cretaceous through Tertiary marine to
nonmarine siliciclastic strata deposited as wedges of sediment Craig, J.D., and Sherwood, K.W., 2004, Economic study of
shed from the Brooks Range orogenic belt. Most production the Burger gas discovery, Chukchi shelf, northwest Alaska:
is from structural and combination structural-stratigraphic U.S. Minerals Management Service, 71 p. [URL http://
traps, although several recent oil discoveries are in purely www.mms.gov/alaska/re/BurgerResources/Economic%20
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accumulations for the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province reserves, reserves changes, and production, Alaska: URL
indicate that more than 50 billion bbl of liquid petroleum http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_pres_dcu_SAK_
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distributed approximately equally between the Federal Energy Information Administration, 2006b, Natural gas
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Reference citation for this paper:
Houseknecht, D.W., and Bird, K.J., 2006, Oil and gas resources of the Arctic Alaska
petroleum province: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1732-A, 11 p.,
available online at: http: //pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1732a/