First oil production begins at Nuna project in Alaska

An oil company in Alaska has begun producing oil from a new drill site on the North Slope.

ConocoPhillips said last week that it had launched production at its Nuna project.

Nuna is expected to add 20,000 barrels of oil to the state’s overall oil production, at its peak production level.

The project is part of the Kuparuk River field that began producing oil in 1981 and remains one of the largest producing fields on-shore in the U.S.

Nuna is unique because the module for the oil production was fabricated in Alaska, the company said in a statement last week.

“The Nuna module was the first production module like this fabricated in-state in more than two decades and demonstrates ConocoPhillips’ commitment to Alaska,” said Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, in the statement.

The drill site for the Nuna project is located just east of the Colville River, not far from the village of Nuiqsut.

Twenty-nine development wells are planned at Nuna. Drilling began in September and is expected to continue for the new few years, the company says.

The crude oil will be prepared for export at existing processing facilities at the Kuparuk River field.

ConocoPhillips is Alaska’s largest oil producer. The company produces about 200,000 barrels of oil daily, about 40% of the state’s oil production.

The oil giant acquired the relatively small Nuna project in 2019 from Caelus, a company from Dallas that still owns the potentially giant but remote offshore oil prospect in Smith Bay, off the North Slope.

ConocoPhillips Alaska reported net income of $1.8 billion in 2023. That year it paid about $1.8 billion in taxes and royalties to the Alaska and U.S. governments, it said in a statement.

The Houston, Texas-based company also owns the giant Willow oil project on federal land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, on the North Slope. The Biden administration approved the controversial project last year.

Willow is expected to produce an estimated 180,000 barrels of oil day at its peak, with first production expected in 2029.