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5.1.6.wavIn 1967, the largest oil field in North America was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coast, in a region known as the North Slope. The story of how the Prudhoe Bay oilfields developed is interesting. In 1966, Richfield Oil, the discoverer of the Swanson River field on the Kenai Peninsula, had drilled several dry wells on its North Slope leases. Having no success and facing expensive drilling costs operating in the remote Arctic, they planned to leave the Slope after a final effort in the winter of 1967. On the day after Christmas, the crew opened a rig to check the results. Natural gas burst into the air. When ignited from a two-inch pipe, it flared 50 feet in a 30-mile-per-hour wind. Richfield began a second well immediately to see if more gas and oil were in the area. In March 1968, it confirmed what the other well had produced.
The early estimate for the field was 9.6 billion recoverable barrels. Advances in technology and further exploration have increased the estimate of North Slope oil fields to 28 billion barrels. The amount of recoverable oil in these fields is more than double that of the next largest field in the United States.
The discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields was a watershed moment in Alaskan history. Alaska would never be the same after the discovery. In the words of Governor Egan in 1970, "Alaska has become established as America's greatest oil province. Ponder for a moment the promise, the dream, and the touch of destiny."
One of the first oil wells in Prudhoe Bay, 1968
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