Portrait of an oil pool

The Prudhoe Bay petroleum reservoir, 25 miles across from west to east, 10 miles from north to south and its middle buried 9000 feet deep, is presently yielding 1.2 million barrels of crude per day. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline can presently handle only that capacity, but expansion is planned if enough undiscovered oil is found to accommodate the additional capacity. The geological formation of the field and procedures for drilling the field are reviewed. Sohio has budgeted $2.5 billion over the next 5 years to further develop the side of the oil field it operates. Techniques planned by Sohio to continue high production as the natural pressure in the field declines are briefly described. Wells can be scheduled to be drilled earlier, equipment to lower pressure in the oil-gas-water separators can be called for, injecting gas into the wells to bubble up oil, or waterflooding are methods cited. (MCW)