Which U.S. state is home to the Prudhoe Bay oil field?

Which U.S. state is home to the Prudhoe Bay oil field? Prudhoe Bay is in Alaska.

The field sits on Alaska’s North Slope, along the shore of Prudhoe Bay above the Arctic Circle. It is the largest oil field in North America and one of the most important petroleum discoveries in U.S. history. The discovery well was confirmed in 1968 by Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil, later part of Exxon.

Commercial production began on June 20, 1977, after completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Oil from Prudhoe Bay travels south through that pipeline to the marine terminal at Valdez, where it can be loaded for shipment. At its peak in 1988, the greater Prudhoe Bay development produced roughly 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.

A frequent mix-up is confusing Prudhoe Bay with the Permian Basin, which spans Texas and New Mexico and is the largest U.S. oil-producing region by modern production. Prudhoe Bay itself is a field in Alaska, not a state, basin, or pipeline terminal; Valdez is the export endpoint associated with its crude shipments.