The Prudhoe Bay field is recognized as the largest oil field in the United States. The Permo-Triassic reservoirs, estimated to contain reserves of 9.6 billion bbl of oil and 26 Tcf of gas, have overshadowed other known substantial accumulations of hydrocarbons in formations ranging in age from Mississippian to Cretaceous in the general area of Prudhoe Bay. Reservoirs are in the Lisburne carbonate rocks, as well as the Kuparuk River sandstone. Other Permo-Triassic and Cretaceous accumulations are less significant.

Perhaps unrecognized, except in retrospect, is the significance of the planned sequential availability of both federal and state lands on the North Slope beginning in 1958. An 11-year period of land availability followed a 14-year moratorium. Exploration that led to the discovery in 1968 culminated with the September, 1969, State of Alaska "Billion Dollar Sale."

The post-discovery sequence of exploration, development, and production in the area has been characterized by environmental, social, legal, political, and economic complexity and controversy. Comparison of the status of petroleum exploration today on the North Slope of Alaska with the history of the 1950s through the early 1970s is an object lesson for explorationists.

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