Vast oil, natural gas reserves estimated in Arctic

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Some 90 billion barrels of oil and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas lie beneath an area north of the Arctic Circle, government scientists estimate in the largest-ever survey of the energy resources there.

The U.S. Geological Survey, which announced the findings Wednesday, called the region, which includes parts of the United States, Russia and Canada, "the largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth."

All told, the area accounts for about a fifth of the world's recoverable oil and natural gas reserves, the USGS says: 13 percent of the oil, 30 percent of natural gas and 20 percent of natural gas liquids.

At today's current consumption rate of 86 million barrels a day, the yet-to-be-tapped oil in the Arctic would supply global demand for three years. Pursuing it is sure to be controversial with environmental groups that want to protect the pristine wilderness and the area's endangered species.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/24/national/w050239D60.DTL&tsp=1

[valerief]

1. All they have to do is melt the Arctic. Guess they're on their way to getting that done! nt

[alfredo]

26. Remember bush said the lost of the ice cap would be good for business.

[navarth]

2. just fucking great

now we'll have another drilling fight on our hands.

[Anexio]

7. .

If you had any sense you wouldn't fight it. After you're going to lose.

How about setting up a fund where for every barrel that gets pump 5 bucks gets spent on alternative energy research?

Try explaining to someone with marginal income in Maine thats looking at paying $4.60 a gallon for heating oil that we can't drill in a place that nobody is ever going to see.

This is a fight you're going to lose so you might as well try to control it.

[Indenturedebtor]

11. What someone needs to explain to you and others who don't yet know

Supply is not the reason for the oil prices right now. That's the Republican meme that they're trying to form into a wedge issue. The main reason for current oil prices is the speculators. Even the investment bankers and oil companies generally agree with that fact. The only people who dispute it are Repukes and their pet cartoon network - Faux News.

Don't feel bad, I didn't know that either until recently.

[Anexio]

13. Thanks for the 'splaining'

Thanks for interpreting the real story for me. Now that I'm up to speed like you are maybe we both can get that point across to the people that will be paying over $4.50 a gallon for oil. After all, when they are as enlightened as you and I then they won't mind paying for oil with a 22% interest credit card this winter, which in northern climates starts in October.

People like you are so stuck on the one issue of drilling that you don't see the finish line which is victory in November.

Arguing against drilling is a loser. You will never win.

[Indenturedebtor]

14. Not true! If they close the Enron loophole and pin that loophole to the Pukes

Prices will go down and pukes will suffer! In a rare act of wisdom this seems to be the tact that many Dems are taking!

That I think is why the price of oil is really going down.

[navarth]

15. thanks for the advice pal, I think I'll fight anyway.

seems to me there's a pretty good counter-surge against it already.

how does fighting that particular fight threaten a victory in November? splain that one for me.

[Anexio]

19. Fight, fight, fight

Excellent! Will you fight for no more drilling when people freeze in their own homes this winter? Will you throw yourself in front of bulldozers so that people who can't afford oil can put another blanket around their children in Chicago on January 18th when the temperature outside is -8 and inside it's 22?

You might want to examine your priorities.

Fighting drilling is a losing battle and makes our party out to be a gaggle of dimwits and out of touch morons.

Have a great winter!

[navarth]

23. give in, give in, give in

that's what we've been doing all along. boy has that worked out well.

[NickB79]

33. First, oil from drilling won't be available for years even if we started drilling tomorrow

So it won't help freezing children in Chicago this winter, next winter, or the next 10 winters to come until the infrastructure is in place.

Secondly, the oil has just as much chance of being sold overseas as it does here in the US. The highest bidder wins, whether that's the US, Japan, or China.

Third, the amount of oil produced will never contribute to much more than a few cents per gallon of decline in cost. So, even if we could magically produce that oil tomorrow, the children in Chicago will still freeze this winter.

Finally, PANDERING and LYING to the populace to get more votes by telling them everything will be ok if only we drill is not only immoral but will ensure that MORE people will suffer years from now after we start drilling and realize "oh shit, we invested everything we had on this Arctic oil, but it wasn't our salvation!"

So, I WOULD fight against more drilling and instead offer REAL solutions to the global energy and climate problems. If I were a legislator and that cost me my seat, so be it. If the average American is dumb enough to be led down that dangerous path, I would not be the one leading them there.

Those who would PANDER and LIE to get votes despite knowing the reality of the situation are spineless scum, no matter what party they are a part of.

[Barrett808]

25. Disagree -- the supply shortfall is quite real, and will only worsen:

See, for example, the new CFTC report:



http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4334

[Doctor_J]

3. 3 years' worth is vast?

Unless Dobson & Robertson are right about The Rapture being right around the corner, I would say this amount falls closer to the realm of "miniscule"

[slackmaster]

4. It's actually more like 11 years' worth, but I'd call it "half vast" at best

;-)

[daleo]

22. How is it 11 years worth?

The article clearly stated that there might be 90 billion recoverable barrels. World consumption is about 80 million barrels per day. That works out to 1125 days, or 3.08 years of supply.

Unless you just mean U.S. oil demand. But there is no way that the U.S. can keep all that to itself, as most of the Arctic oil is not in U.S. territorial waters.

Even if the ice were to melt, this oil would still be difficult to recover, so I doubt that there is anywhere near 90 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.

[slackmaster]

24. I was basing my estimate on US consumption rates, not global

:hi:

I understand that the market is global, but have to assume there are other resources at the same level of discovery distributed elsewhere on the planet.

[Solon]

5. "estimate" is the key word, unless they already drilled holes and are pumping...

we don't know if jack shit is up there. It could be a large amount of oil and NG up there, or there could be none, and the government has a tendency to overestimate these projections, all the time.

[XemaSab]

29. Seriously

The number of barrels of oil is the arctic is twice the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin: it's some number that some fool pulled out of their a$$.

[madville]

6. It contains 1/5 of the world's supply and it will only last three years ?

Something just doesn't add up with this article. Does that mean we will be out of oil in 15 years ?

[Zynx]

8. I think it means if we were drawing it at the total global demand it would be gone in three.

[baldguy]

9. All the more reason to keep oil prices high.

it wouldn't be cost effective otherwise.

:sarcasm:

[wordpix]

10. how about the vast amount of insfrasturcture & energy it will take to get oil out of the Arctic

and down to the Lower 48? :shrug: If it's indeed going to the Lower 48, b/c most oil ends up on worldwide oil markets and does not just stay in its country of origin. Speaking of vast: there are vast distances, vast mt. ranges, miles of coastline, miles of roads and oil rush towns to build, all needing vast quantities of oil and gas for transportation, construction and exploration.

Big Oil and the MSM would never call for a cost:benefit analysis, which is the prudent thing to do when there's a major controversy.

[Javaman]

12. Like someone else pointed out here on DU...

"Some 90 billion barrels of oil and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas lie beneath an area north of the Arctic Circle"

if it's "undiscovered" how do they know that there is 90 billion barrels.

smoke and mirrors brought to you by the oil bastards.

[DogPoundPup]

16. There's something else the republiCONS look forward to to get the 'undiscovered' oil

MORE WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wordpix]

18. where is Condi in that pic?

[Triana]

31. smoke and mirrors indeed. This is pro-oil, anti-environmental propaganda.

attempt to sway the public into supporting drilling there. They're just pulling numbers out of the air - or, someplace else smellier and darker. ;)

[rucky]

17. Vast reserves of cheese estimated on the moon. n/t

[mbperrin]

20. Yes, and vast reserves of diamonds estimated in my

backyard. I'll sell the mining rights for a mere $5 million. Hey, I bona fide this estimate! Grab it while it's hot!

[UNCLE_Rico]

21. Spit in the ocean ...

A drop in the bucket, so to speak.

It doesn't matter so much *how much* oil there is there, what's going to matter is the how fast it can be brought online, and how fast it can be removed from the ground once it is. And that answer is most certainly going to be: Too Little, and Far Too Late.

It also matters very much the fact that our oil industry is NOT NATIONALIZED, therefore, the US oil industry is basically no different than a FOREIGN COUNTRY as far as their desire to benefit We the People of the USA. There's nobody looking out for us, we have no dog in this hunt, really.

By the time that this oil is ready to even BEGIN to be extracted (assuming they are correct that it's there), many years from now, the relative trickle that it's going to be is going to be far too little, too late.

We're already past-peak right now. Conservative estimates are that world-wide production will fall 3-5% per year from here on out. Actual exports (hence, most of the US supply) will fall even faster, because the countries with oil are going to be experiencing booming economies due to the massive cash influx of high oil prices, driving up their internal consumption rates.

Worldwide demand overall will also continue to grow.

It will be at *least* 10 years before these fields are pumping at their maximum flow rates.

I fear that by then, petrol will be well over $20/gallon, and our economy, and our society as a whole, will lie in complete ruins.

[exothermic]

27. It also matters whether it can be produced using less energy than it yields.

That's another problem that has virtually no chance at amelioration as time goes by. As it generally does.

[hatrack]

28. Nice guesstimate - whose ass did USGS pull it out of?

Did they wrap up the seismic survey for the entire region? Somehow that must have escaped the attention of the OGJ and the remainder of the business press . . .

[Triana]

30. SO? We should destroy the planet for profit instead of doing anything to find alternatives?

Guess so.

[NickB79]

32. Why did the phrase "Mukluk dry hole" suddenly pop into my head?

"But visions of more giant fields stashed beneath the North Slope have never materialized. The companies spent lavishly searching for the next giant, including BP's Mukluk well. That $2 billion venture was the most expensive dry hole in history. Smaller reservoirs like Kuparuk, Endicott, Milne Point and Alpine help. But after Prudhoe production peaked in 1988, holding up oil flow has been like trying to tread water while tied to the Titanic."

http://www.avcg-llc.com/Anchorage_Daily_News__Small_prospects.htm

Oops doesn't quite cover a $2 billion dollar mistake.

[hunter]

34. Imaginary oil is the perfect fuel for an imaginary economy.

My imaginary flying car is going to run on Arctic Oil!

Thank goodness, I was a little bit worried...

:party:

[BreweryYardRat]

35. Horseshit.

If that survey hasn't had the numbers heavily doctored, I'll be amazed.