Point Thomson moves closer to higher output as Hilcorp clears key step

Point Thomson is one step closer to more gas and condensate, after state regulators approved the accounting method Hilcorp Alaska, LLC needs to bring PTU 19 online without losing track of what each well produces.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued the order on April 3 and changed the field’s existing conservation setup so production from the new well can be measured and allocated properly alongside PTU 17, the original producer. The decision matters because Point Thomson’s two producing wells must undergo safety valve testing twice a year, and only one well can be shut in at a time. Without a reliable allocation method, regulators and the operator would have a hard time sorting out how much production belongs to each well.

Hilcorp’s plan uses wet gas meters on each well, along with liquids yield, sales meter data and separator volumes. Hilcorp said in a May 2025 letter that it had already installed a wet gas meter at PTU 17, and the commission said that approach would provide acceptable results. In practical terms, the ruling gives Hilcorp the regulatory green light to count production more cleanly as it tries to bring PTU 19 into service.

The timing is important for a field that still falls well short of its original promise. Hilcorp told regulators it wants Point Thomson back toward its design capacity of about 10,000 barrels per day. AOGCC data for February showed PTU 17 averaging 4,129 barrels per day, while current gas output at PTU 17 was around 70 million standard cubic feet per day. PTU 19 is expected to add another 100 to 200 million standard cubic feet per day of gas, a meaningful increase for a field tied into the eastern North Slope’s broader supply picture.

Point Thomson sits about 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay and 60 miles west of Kaktovik, in one of the most technically complex parts of Alaska’s oil patch. ExxonMobil says the reservoir holds an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 200 million barrels of condensate, and that the facilities were built to cycle 200 million cubic feet per day of gas and produce up to 10,000 barrels per day of condensate. That condensate moves through a 22-mile pipeline into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

Hilcorp has already told the Alaska Department of Natural Resources that the current operable wellstock cannot fill the facilities to capacity and that additional wells will be needed. Last August, the Division of Oil and Gas approved a Point Thomson unit plan-of-operations amendment that included a grassroots well, a temporary cuttings pit and tie-ins to existing infrastructure.

The AOGCC ruling does not by itself deliver more barrels or more gas, but it removes a key technical hurdle. For Point Thomson, that means the field can move a little closer to the production levels its infrastructure was built to handle, with implications for North Slope jobs, local contracting and the long-term case for gas commercialization.