New cash flow from an old field.

• Author: Tyson, Ray
• Position: Arco Alaska Inc.'s Cook Inlet oil field

Everybody's agog about Arco's 750-million barrel Cook Inlet find. But Arco and Unocal already have plans to develop other inlet fields.

While it may be premature to declare an oil renaissance in the Cook Inlet, it's not too early to say work planned by Unocal and Arco Alaska alone could more than triple current production by the turn of the century. And the likelihood of future discoveries -- plus Arco's announcement that its Sunfish field may contain as much as 750 million barrels in gross oil reserves -- could push the total much higher.

In fact, Pam Parks, Arco's exploration manager for southern Alaska, speaking before Arco's April announcement, said it was "certainly within the range of possibilities" that Cook Inlet -- on the oil decline for years -- could again yield rates of 200,000 barrels a day attained during its peak 23 years ago.

"Our view of the Inlet is that it may contain very significant undiscovered reserves. We would rank it in the top five U.S. basins," Parks said.

Kevin Tabler, Unocal's Alaska land manager, says, "We feel there is a lot more oil to be recovered. We're going to concentrate and focus all of our effort and manpower in the inlet reevaluating our existing fields."

A few years ago, industry observers had all but written off the inlet, predicting the early shutdown of many aging fields that were over 90 percent depleted of their reserves. Companies were far more interested in the North Slope, a region that now produces a quarter of the U.S. domestic crude oil and 44 times the amount of oil extracted from the inlet.

The North Slope will remain Alaska's oil capital for years to come. But new technologies, new geological concepts and relatively low development and transportation costs led some explorers to believe Cook Inlet was worth another visit.

Says Parks, "Where most productive basins in the U.S. have undergone multiple cycles of exploration, Cook Inlet has undergone only one. The current activity may mark the beginning of its second cycle."

Based on plans announced by Arco and Unocal, it's conceivable that their efforts alone could push current daily production from 40,000 barrels about 140,000 barrels by the year 2000, helping to stabilize the inlet's waning oil and gas industry.

While Arco was grabbing headlines over its new Sunfish discovery -- the first in the inlet in a quarter century -- Unocal was quietly searching for ways to extract more oil from its producing Chakachatna properties in the...