Alaska North Slope

Map of northern Alaska showing location of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR-en:1002 area, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA).

Petrolium resource

The Alaska North Slope is property of the United States that includes:

• the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska,
• the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field discovered 1968
• the Kuparuk River Oil Field discovered 1969

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) includes the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. The crude oil pipeline is privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968.

Crude production

The Alaska North Slope (ANS) is a more expensive waterborne crude. Since 1987, Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude production has been in decline. The Trump administration approved a plan to drill for oil in Alaska’s federal waters. “It’s a major first” says Darryl Fears, Washington Post.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

ARCO Chairman Robert O. Anderson hand-picked Angus Gavin of UAF, to observe, categorize and quantify the little know flora and fauna of Prudhoe Bay in 1969. Gavin's work was instrumental in helping ARCO and the scientific community draw conclusions, pro or con, about the impact of oil field development on the ecology of the North Slope and to recommend operational changes that would minimize or negate any adverse effects on the environment.

The Atlantic Richfield Co. gifted to the University of Alaska Fairbanks funds to establish a consolidated endowment fund, in 1981, in honor of the memory of Angus Gavin, environmental scientist and advisor to ARCO.

Resources

• Wikipedia, Alaska North Slope