Peak year 1992 Start of development 1979 | Offshore/onshore onshore Discovery April 1969 Start of production 13 December 1981 | |
Peak of production 322,000 barrels per day (~1.60×10^ t/a) Current production of oil 230,000 barrels per day (~1.1×10^ t/a) Estimated oil in place 6,000 million barrels (~8.2×10^ t) | ||
The Kuparuk River Oil Field, or Kuparuk, located in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States, is the second largest oil field in North America by area. It produces approximately 230,000 barrels per day (~1.1×10^7 t/a) of oil and is estimated to have 2 billion barrels (320×10^6 m3) of recoverable oil reserves. It is named for the Kuparuk River.
Kuparuk was discovered by Sinclair Oil in April 1969 at the Ugnu Number 1 well, named for the nearby Ugnuravik River. Oil was found in the Kuparuk sandstone on the Colville structure. Production was first announced by ARCO in 1979 and planned to start in 1982. Production actually began December 13, 1981, on five small gravel drilling pads. Production was expected to peak in 1986 at 250,000 barrels per day (40,000 m3/d), but did not peak until 1992 at 322,000 barrels per day (51,200 m3/d).
