A Digital Atlas of Hydrocarbon Accumulations Within and Adjacent to the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA)

Introduction

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has initiated a project to reassess the hydrocarbon potential of the NPRA. Although exploration for hydrocarbons in the NPRA was initiated in 1944, it has taken fifty years for the first commercial discovery to be made. That discovery, the Alpine field (projected recoverable reserves of 430 million barrels), was made in 1994 along the eastern boundary of the NPRA. This field produces from a formation heretofore considered to be mostly a source rock. The Alpine discovery made such a reassessment necessary. As part of this assessment, we have compiled stratigraphic, structural, petrophysical, and seismic data related to nineteen accumulations within and nearby the NPRA. The goal is to provide basic documentation and a set of analog accumulations for the new assessment.

The first two displays of this atlas consist of a location map and a stratigraphic column showing the stratigraphic settings for the primary reservoir and source rocks for these accumulations. The third display is a table listing each accumulation and providing the hydrocarbon fluid type, reservoir, operator, status, and discovery well and date for each. Compilation of basic information for each individual accumulation follows these displays. A typical compilation includes a structurecontour map on or near the reservoir horizon, a log display of the discovery well with reservoir characteristics along with figures for recoverable volumes, and one or two seismic lines across or near the accumulation.

First posted March 22, 2002