“We are progressing the development of Point Thomson consistent with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Interim Decision of January 2009 and the Plan of Development submitted in February 2008,” said Dale Pittman, Alaska production manager for ExxonMobil. “We place the highest priority on safety and care of the environment. We are on schedule to begin production at Point Thomson by year-end 2014.”
Point Thomson is a natural gas and condensate field located 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope of Alaska. It holds an estimated eight trillion cubic feet of gas – about 25% of the North Slope’s proven gas resource – and about 200 million barrels of condensate. Developing these resources presents a number of challenges. In order to safely access the high pressure Point Thomson reservoir, the Nabors 27E drilling rig was modified with about $35 million in upgrades. ExxonMobil staff and Alaskan contractors worked in 2008 through early 2009 to prepare the rig and pad for drilling.
ExxonMobil’s field development will include a gas cycling plant designed to produce hydrocarbon liquids and re-inject natural gas back into the reservoir. In addition to processing facilities, the development will include a pipeline tie-in to the TransAlaska Pipeline System (TAPS) and other ancillary facilities and infrastructure. Point Thomson owners committed $120 million to the drilling and development activities in 2008, with additional investments of about $250 million expected in 2009. Point Thomson gas is critical to the success of a North Slope gas pipeline.
In addition to ExxonMobil, other Point Thomson owners participating in the current drilling and development activity include BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc.
