New study adds fodder to ANWR drilling debate
Date: 20-May-02
Country: USA
Author: Chris Baltimore
The U.S. Geological Survey increased its estimate of crude oil lying beneath the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska to 9.3 billion barrels from 2.1 billion barrels in 1980, when it conducted its last study.
The agency also declared that at current oil prices, more oil could be pumped from the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) than in the petroleum reserve about 100 miles (160 km) away.
The Navy established the petroleum reserve in 1923 as a source of fuel, but there has been limited exploration there.
New technology and the discovery of a large oil field on state land just east of the petroleum reserve are the major factors behind the increased estimate, said Ken Bird, the USGS geologist who was the report's lead author.
"I think these numbers are very realistic in terms of what we now know about the geology of the area," Bird said at an Anchorage news conference on Thursday.
The Democratic-led Senate recently rejected a proposal to drill in ANWR, a pristine wilderness area which stretches over 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) in northern Alaska.
But the ANWR drilling plan - bolstered by the new data - may be revived by Republicans in a joint House-Senate bargaining session set to begin in coming weeks.
NEW DEBATE OVER DRILLING?
The new study "proves that ANWR is a far better source of oil" than the nearby National Petroleum Reserve, said Alaska Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski. Murkowski is the Republican party's point-man on ANWR drilling, a central plank in the Bush administration's energy proposal.
But Democrats said that a dramatic increase in potential oil reserves in the already available petroleum reserve cancels any need to tap ANWR, which is home to polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.
"There is so much untapped oil and potential in the area where drilling is already approved that it would be hasty to even think about opening up the Arctic refuge," said a spokesman for Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who is seen as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.
The U.S. Geological Survey noted that at market prices below $35 per barrel, there would be more recoverable crude oil in ANWR than in the national reserve. At market prices over $35 per barrel, the two areas would have roughly equal amounts of recoverable oil, it said.
At the current U.S. price of $28 per barrel, about 6.2 billion barrels could be recovered economically from ANWR versus 5.1 billion barrels in the national reserve, the agency said. In Thursday trading, June crude oil contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $27.95 per barrel.
A spokesman for Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles hailed the new estimate as encouraging news.
"This is great news, not only to meet national energy needs but also for jobs in Alaska," said Bob King, press secretary to the Democratic governor. "It's certainly our hope that industry's going to take a renewed interest in leasing in NPR-A and finding ways to make it economic."
ECONOMICS OR TECHNOLOGY?
Environmental groups complained that the new government report relied on economics - not technology - to emphasize ANWR's attractiveness.
Using an alternative standard of available drilling technology, the national reserve comes out about 1.6 billion barrels ahead of ANWR, the government study showed.
"It looks like a switching of vocabulary to try to prove a point," said Jim Waltman, a spokesman for the Wilderness Society. "But no one should be fooled."
The U.S. Geological Survey also measured ANWR oil value in 1996 dollars, while using 2001 dollars to measure the national reserve oil value.
"It overstates ANWR oil's value relative to the (national reserve oil)," Waltman said.
To Pamela Miller, an Anchorage environmental consultant who attended the news conference, the new information is also more evidence for the campaign against ANWR drilling.
"It's one more study by the interior department focusi
