Producers roll up their sleeves to tackle heavy oil

North Slope producers BP and ConocoPhillips are tackling one of their toughest technological challenges to date.

The companies are working to find the best way to produce the heavy oil from the Ugnu formation, a massive deposit of low-grade oil trapped in sandstone rocks overlying the conventional producing fields of the North Slope. Current estimates put the Ugnu in-place resources in the tens of billions of barrels range.