Declining production.

• Position: Oil production in Prudhoe Bay

Declining Production. Although oil production in Prudhoe Bay is declining, officials at BP Exploration (Alaska) say they expect to produce from the field until the year 2020. "After that, it depends on what happens to gas," says Mike Davidson, manager of Prudhoe Bay resource development. "Gas production could go on until the middle of the next century."

About 7 billion barrels have been recovered from Prudhoe Bay so far, and the field still has proven reserves of 4.57 billion barrels. In addition, there may be as many as 10 billion barrels more, which may not be technologically or economically feasible to recover.

Oil production has been hampered by falling reserves and a lack of facilities to compress and reinject natural gas. Some of the original wells drilled in 1977 produced in excess of 60 million barrels of crude; some of the wells being drilled now are expected to produce less than a million barrels. Davidson says a two-part gas handling expansion program, scheduled for 1993 and 1995 and...