Comparison to Other Basins
COOK INLET (ALASKA) - Appendix 7 Strong Report, Chapter 10 Royal Society
There are presently seven producing oil fields on the Kenai Peninsula (>30,000 barrels per day, 'bpd') and 17 gas fields (>485 million cubic feet of gas per day, 'cfgpd'), according to Alaska's Oil and Gas Association (AOGA, 2000). There are 15 platforms tapping offshore fields. These are linked by pipeline to onshore storage tanks from which oil is transferred by tanker to the refinery at Nikiski. Nikiski also has a fertilizer plant and a gas liquefaction plant. Peak oil production occurred in 1970 with 230,000 bpd. Current production is about 30,000 bpd (estimated to decline to 7,000 bpd by 2003; AOGA, 2000). The oil and gas industry employs more than 1500 workers, with hundreds more on contract, and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the local economy. There are many similarities between Cook Inlet and the Queen Charlotte Basin (QCB). Oil and gas reserves of Cook Inlet are similar to the potential estimated for the QCB. Both are enclosed waterways—Cook Inlet is a tidal estuary and the Hecate Strait is a partially sheltered shelf environment. Each has long-established commercial fisheries, a growing tourism industry, environmental concerns (protection of parks, sanctuaries, critical habitats, etc.), and First Nations interests and the concerns of how to balance all these competing and coexisting enterprises. Many issues of concern to BC residents and environmental groups have already been dealt with in the Cook Inlet area and these can be used as a template for monitoring oil and gas activities and their effects on the environment in the QCB. One of the major steps forward in the Cook Inlet area, especially after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, was to set up councils and "keepers" to involve the public in the monitoring of the production and transportation of oil and gas. This includes actual monitoring projects as well as education and information dissemination. The cumulative totals of production for Cook Inlet to 2000 are 1.2 billion barrels (Bbl) of crude oil and 5.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is estimated that 90% of recoverable reserves have been produced (AOGA, 2000). According to Hannigan et al., (2001), the QCB is expected to have 6 oil fields with over 100 million barrels recoverable, giving a total recoverable amount of 1.3 billion barrels. For the gas resource of the QCB, there would be 9 fields with more than 500 billion cubic feet, totaling 9.8 trillion cubic feet recoverable (Hannigan et al., 2001). The two basins are thus very similar in the size of the recoverable hydrocarbon resource. Geological Similarities to Queen Charlotte Basin:
Geological Differences to Queen Charlotte Basin:
2. CALIFORNIA - Appendix 9 Strong Report (Rohr) The Queen Charlotte Basin has also been compared to the California continental borderland basins based on similar Neogene tectonic history and structural characteristics (Rohr and Dietrich, 1992). Several Neogene strike-slip basins occur in the California borderland region including the oil rich Los Angeles Basin estimated at 10 Bbl (Biddle, 1992). The primary difference between the basins is the type of source rocks, thereby limiting comparison of petroleum yield estimates. However, strike-slip basins are considered to be above average in terms of hydrocarbon potential Oil wells tend to be in southern California and purely gas wells in northern California. In 2000 46,799 oil wells and 1,169 gas wells were producing hydrocarbons from 288 fields; total production was 307.4 million barrels of oil and 379.1 billion cubic feet of gas. 1,412 offshore wells accounted for 17.6% of the total oil production and are largely found off southern California in a seismically active region. Areas within three miles offshore are regulated by the state and the rest by the federal government. Damaging earthquakes have also been a part of California’s history, killing hundreds of people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage over time. In available accounts of damage caused by major earthquakes, damage to wells and ensuing oil spills is not mentioned (e.g. Dept. of Conservation; von Hake, 1971). An official from California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources which regulates drilling and production of wells could recall no instance of damage done to offshore production facilities by an earthquake. An earthquake near Coalinga (M=6.7, 1983) on a blind thrust caused minor damage to storage tanks by sloshing fluids. In any event these tanks are surrounded by berms to protect against the more imminent danger of leakage from corrosion. However, nearby houses and commercial buildings of unreinforced adobe and concrete were heavily damaged, leaving 1,000 people homeless. Spills from blow-outs were not unusual in the early days of drilling, but engineers learned to control the spontaneous flow of oil out of most pressured zones. The last major blowout offshore occurred in 1969 off Santa Barbara in federally regulated land. The state placed a temporary moratorium on drilling offshore until stricter regulations were in place to prevent another such occurrence. The blow-out was not caused by an earthquake but rather the simple effect of drilling into a highly pressured zone. Since that time exploration and production have been highly regulated but active at a modest level. Although seismic activity creates some risk, geologically it has created structures favorable to trapping hydrocarbons. Slight compression across the plate boundary has folded and faulted the adjacent basins into structures which trap hydrocarbons; the same kind of structures are observed in Hecate Strait. 3. CANADA'S EAST COAST Any potential offshore oil and gas industry in British Columbia would rely heavily on experiences from operations on Canada's East Coast (Hibernia, Sable Island, Terra Nova, etc.). This encompasses all aspects of operations including scientific, social, economic and political issues. Comparisons and corollaries are made throughout this web site to the east coast for numerous subjects. Some credit from above text to Chapter 10 and Appendix 6 of British Columbia Offshore Hydrocarbon Development: Report of the Scientific Review Panel prepared by Strong, David, Patricia Gallagher and Derek Muggeridge, January 2002. |
Cook Inlet lies on the south central Alaskan Coast and
has been the center of a thriving oil and gas industry for almost 50 years.
Oil was first discovered in 1957 onshore at Swanson River (80 km SW of
Anchorage) and in 1963 oil was then found offshore in the Centrex of Cook
Inlet (Wagner et al., 1969).
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