Exceeding expectations: Alpine expansion and satellite development gathers steam.

• Author: Liles, Patricia

From its commercial start six years ago, the Alpine oil field has exceeded expectations of its developers, ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum, who continue to invest in the far-western North Slope reservoir by expanding processing facilities and developing nearby satellite fields.

Opportunities remain for Alaska contractors to land a portion of future multimillion-dollar construction projects to tap known oil accumulations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, as development plans have already been approved by federal land managers.

Originally designed to produce crude oil at an average rate of 70,000 barrels per day, Alpine's peak production performance was quickly revised upward in 2000 by its operator, then Phillips Petroleum.

With simple mechanical tweaks within the plant, production was boosted to 100,000 barrels of oil per day in 2001, according to company spokeswoman Dawn Patience.

The company considered additional improvements to the facility and in 2003, construction crews began the first of a three-phase capacity expansion project designed to increase oil production at Alpine by expanding the processing capacity.

THREE PHASES

In the first phase of development, oil production capacity was increased by expanding the water- and gas-handling capacities of the plant, according to a ConocoPhillips press release. The $60 million Phase 1 project initially increased daily oil production by 5,000 barrels per day, with its completion and start up in late 2004.

A second phase of expansion at Alpine was completed in mid-2005, according to a ConocoPhillips release. That $58 million project increased both the oil-handling and seawater injection capacities of the Alpine oil field facilities, yielding a daily rate of 140,000 barrels of crude per day.

"The two expansion projects are important for increasing oil production and maintaining reservoir pressure," the ConocoPhillips release said. "Alpine has been developed exclusively with horizontal well technology and employs enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The field's unique design and the use of EOR will help extract more oil from the reservoir."

The third phase of expansion of processing facilities was approved in early 2005, with work being completed during this past winter construction season. The Alpine Capacity Expansion Phase 3 involves installing a condensate stabilizer and associated equipment at the field's central facility.

"The purpose of the project is to optimize the miscible...