Alaska's Prudhoe Bay Loses Top Spot Among U.S. Oil Fields

Prudhoe Bay is no longer No. 1 in the U.S. oil world, experts say.

The oil field, home to the huge hydrocarbon reservoir that inspired construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and kicked off an economic boom that transformed the state, now ranks third in the nation for remaining oil reserves, according to a new Department of Energy report.

Prudhoe Bay has slipped behind two Texas oil-field units that are at the forefront of the shale-oil revolution, according to the report, issued by the U.S Energy Information Administration, an agency of the Department of Energy.

The nation's top oil field, in both remaining reserves and annual production, is Eagleville in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale Play. That field, discovered in 2009, produced 238 million barrels in 2013, the EIA report said.

In second place is the Spraberry Trend Area, which produced 99.78 million barrels in 2013, the EIA report said. That field, a half a century old, has been rejuvenated by the same techniques and technologies that have allowed companies to drill for oil in previously uneconomical shales.

Prudhoe Bay, which produced 79 million barrels in 2013, was in third place in both reserves and output, according to the EIA list.

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