Alaska North Slope

The Alaska North Slope is recognised as a prolific oil province that, despite decades of decline, is still producing in excess of 500,000 BOPD.

The emergence of new geological play types and recent discoveries seek to address the production decline with an expectation that production will increase over the coming decade. Revenues associated with oil production are of great fiscal importance to the State of Alaska.

The North Slope remains underexplored and is rated as an immature exploration province in terms of well density-to-reserves and production, confirming the immense potential proven by recent discoveries. IHS Markit believes the ANS is a “Super Basin ready for oil resurgence as oil production expected to grow 40% in eight years”.

Pantheon is a large leaseholder on the ANS where it controls a 100% working interest in large, mostly contiguous acreage block, south of the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields. This acreage is covered by c. 1,000 square miles of mostly proprietary 3D seismic and contains several existing discoveries and a host of world class exploration prospects.

As part of the USA, Alaska enjoys well understood sovereign risk ratings and best fiscal regimes for petroleum development in the world, which is ideal for a small operator such as Pantheon to pursue impactful oil ventures.

The Division of Oil & Gas at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has developed a North Slope Oil Cash Flow Model, used to analyse the cash flows of upstream oil and gas projects in Alaska. The models have been designed as informational tools for the public, oil and gas industry, investors, and others. It is accessible here.