North Slope Oil Companies in Alaska Gamble on Heavy Oil for Big Payoff Date: Saturday, April 30 @ 11:07:44 PDT Topic: Production; Extraction; Exploration
BP and ConocoPhillips are betting that heavy oil in Alaska will result in a big payoff.
Heavy oil - which has the consistency of thick molasses instead of olive oil - lies in sandstone above the huge reservoir of North Slope light oil that has been flowing down the trans-Alaska pipeline since 1977. With that reservoir being drawn down, the companies are turning to hard-to-pump heavy oil to extend the life of the oil fields.
