Abstract

Prudhoe Bay, one of several productive oil fields associated with the Alaskan North Slope, is the largest known oil reserve in the United States. To date, it has produced more oil than was initially believed to be in the entire reserve. Unfortunately, increasing demands for oil in the Unted States are quickly depleting this reserve. In the meantime, no new oil fields have been discovered in the U.S. This has established the need to better understand existing oil fields, such as Prudhoe Bay, in the hopes of locating compensative fields. Interpretive skills acquired from Prudhoe Bay can then be used to more accurately locate and ascertain viable reserves. The type of information needed to find such a lucrative oil field involves a better understanding of reservoirs, source rocks and development of trap systems. All of these items are key components of an oil field, in particular, Prudhoe Bay. This methodology has already been applied to another local Alaskan site where preliminary statistics suggests a "Prudhoe Bay" sequel.