The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field in Alaska is the largest oil field in the United States, discovered in 1968. It originally contained over 25 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Production did not begin until 1977 with the completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, an 800-mile pipeline transporting oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. In 2006, a large oil spill occurred at Prudhoe Bay due to pipeline corrosion, temporarily halting production.

1. Prudhoe Bay History
The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is the largest oil field in both the United States and North America.
The field is located in Alaska on its North Slope and covers 213,543 acres. When first
discovered, the oil field contained approximately 25
billion barrels of oil. The amount of recoverable oil
in the field is twice that of the next largest oil field
in the United States (The East Texas Oil Field).
Prudhoe was discovere d on March 12, 1968 by
Atlantic Richfield Company and Exxon with the well
Prudhoe Bay Slate #1. The lead geologist to find the
drilling sites for the discovery and confirmation
wells was Marvin Mangus. Production of the area
did not begin until June 20, 1997 when the Alaskan Pipeline was completed.
The formation that oil and natural gas are produced from is the Triassic, Ivishak sandstone in
the area. Oil is trapped in the Sadlerochit formation, which is a sandstone and gravel structure
nearly 9,000 feet underneath the Earth’s surface.
In March of 2006, BP discovered a large oil spill in the western part of Prudhoe Bay. The spill
was due to corrosion in the pipeline, which allowed 267,000 gallons of oil to be spilled. Because
of the spill, BP was forced to shut down operations, which caused worldwide oil prices to rise
and the State of Alaska to lose $6.4 million each day until the production was restarted.
The Alaskan Pipeline
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is one of the largest
pipeline systems in the world containing 11 pump stations,
the trans- Alaska crude-oil pipeline, several hundred miles of
feeder pipeline, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. The trans-
Alaska pipeline is 800 miles, has a diameter of 48 in ches, and
conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska.
The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 because of
the oil crisis of 1973 caused a sharp rise in prices. Legislation
had to be passed to remove legal challenges in order for the

2. pipeline to be built due to environmental, legal, and political debates following the discovery of
oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968.
Building the pipeline was not easy because there was a wide range of difficulties that resulted
from extremely cold temperatures and the isolated terrain of Alaska. Permafrost and frozen
ground both had to be dealt with in order to complete the pipeline. Boomtowns rose in Valdez,
Fairbanks, and Anchorage due to the tens of thousands of workers drawn to the project.
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