First Oil from Greater Mooses Tooth #2
Alaska Business
The Greater Mooses Tooth #2 (GMT2) drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA) has achieved first oil production, according to ConocoPhillips Alaska.
Three Years After Greater Mooses Tooth #1
The company says the first oil on December 12 arrived on schedule and under budget.
“The GMT2 team safely executed this project in an environmentally responsible manner, marking another successful milestone for development in the NPRA,” says Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska. “Projects like these continue to create hundreds of jobs in Alaska and contribute to a stable Alaska economy. We appreciate the collaboration with stakeholders from Kuukpik Corporation, the community of Nuiqsut, the North Slope Borough, and ASRC [Arctic Slope Regional Corporation] that made it possible. Our continuous investment in projects on the North Slope benefits Alaska’s future.”
GMT2 is the second project in the Greater Mooses Tooth Unit, in the northeast NPRA. The project is about eight miles southwest of GMT1, which achieved first oil in 2018. GMT2 is a satellite development of the Alpine field and is connected to the existing Alpine production center in the Colville River Unit (CRU) for processing via GMT1 and CD5 infrastructure.
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GMT2 has a 14-acre drilling pad, an 8-mile gravel road, and pipeline facilities connected to the existing CRU infrastructure. The pad is planned to have thirty-six wells initially, with capacity for up to forty-eight wells. Peak production is estimated at approximately 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, exceeding the output of GMT1.
The project costs approximately $1.4 billion gross, including construction and drilling expenses. At peak construction during the past three winter seasons, the project created about 700 jobs resulting in more than 600,000 direct construction manhours.
Permit applications for drilling at GMT2 were submitted to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in August 2015. The BLM completed a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
with a Record of Decision issued on October 16, 2018. The BLM, ASRC, and Kuukpik Corporation share land and mineral rights for the project.
The Greater Mooses Tooth and Colville River Units are approximately 100 percent owned and operated by ConocoPhillips Alaska.
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