The North Slope of Alaska contains several of the largest oil fields in North America, including the largest of them all, the Prudhoe Bay Field. The recent increase in oil price, the pending Alaska Natural Gas Line, along with Alaska’s political stability, have rejuvenated exploration in this world-class basin. The discovery of the giant Alpine oil field 10 years ago has opened up an exciting new stratigraphic Jurassic sandstone trend westward of the existing fields into the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Other Jurassic sandstones are also presently being developed and explored in the Colville Delta area. Upper Cretaceous sandstones, containing viscous oil, are presently being developed above the existing fields, and exploration currently underway could extend this play well beyond the development boundaries and open up a large resource play. The Lower Cretaceous Kuparuk River Sandstone, which is a prolific oil-producing reservoir in the central North Slope, is still one of the hot exploration targets. Other exploration targets include the Cretaceous turbidite systems similar to the existing Tarn and Nanuq fields, the Triassic Sag River Sandstone that produces in the Prudhoe Bay and Milne fields, the Permo-Triassic Ivishak Sandstones that are the main reservoirs in the Prudhoe and Northstar fields and the Mississippian Lisburne carbonates that are presently being developed in the Prudhoe Bay Field. The recently renewed interest in exploration is ushering in a new generation of activity and players in the North Slope.

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