First oil flows from Alaska reserve set aside in '23

First oil flows from Alaska reserve set aside in '23

NUIQSUT, Alaska (AP) — Rising from the edgeless, wind-scoured, snow-covered tundra on Alaska's North Slope lies a million-pound drilling rig pulling the first commercial oil from a reserve set aside nearly a century ago.

ConocoPhillips is the first oil company to draw crude from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an area the size of Indiana which President Warren G. Harding dedicated as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy in 1923.

First oil from there could be as soon as December 2018, and could produce 30,000 barrels a day at peak production.