An oil explorer just made one of the biggest discoveries in the history of Alaska
In a press release on Tuesday the independent exploration and production company said the site could provide up to 200,000 barrels of "light, highly mobile oil" per day. In total the site is expected to provide 6 billion to 10 billion barrels of oil of which about 2.4 billion are recoverable.
The site is in shallow waters in Smith Bay, near the Northern tip of Alaska.
Caelus said that if the discovery turns out to be real, the field would be more fertile than the Alpine unit run by ConocoPhillips, Alaska's largest oil producer, which began production in 2000 and peaked at 139,000 barrels in 2007.
Caelus has not yet done any well testing, and no analysis has been conducted by a third-party engineering company. The production estimates are internal numbers, according to the company.
If the discovery holds true, the oilfield could add to the already prolific levels of US oil production, which contributed to the supply glut that dragged prices lower over the last two years.
In September, Saudi Arabia retook its position as the world's largest oil producer after several US companies took oil rigs offline to cut costs, Bloomberg noted.