Drilling for Oil in ANWR

[Patt]

I was here for a backcountry trip (flying in). On our way out, we flew into the ANWR for a daytrip. Brilliant.

 

[PingSpike]

Seems like a waste of time that will just let us get further behind. This country has become all about band aiding the short term and creating more long term problems. That just sounds like a recipe for collapse, since eventually there just won't be a bandaid big enough.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: B00ne
According to DoI there are technically recoverable (whatever that makes economically recoverable) 10 bill barrels of oil .

So that is about 1year and 4 month of US oil consumption.

The question should be: is such a drop in the bucket worth the environmental cost? If the answer is is yes then by all means go for it. However it will not reduce US dependency on foreign oil (for long).

Yeah... if ANWR were the only source being used. So what?

At full production ANWR would be pumping 1.4 million barrels a day. Right now we import about 2.4 million barrels from the Persian Gulf. Reducing our dependance on ME oil by 60% is a bad thing? I don't think so.

Ummm...you might want to check your facts there man...

The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska?s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025.

and

Congress has grappled for years over whether to allow oil companies access to the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain in the Alaska refuge, which geologists believe harbors about 10.4 billion barrels of crude.

They believe...they still aren't quite sure how much there is, and how much is recoverable...

U.S. domestic oil production will increase over the next four years, from the current 5.7 million barrels a day to 6.1 million barrels a day, largely because of additional oil coming from the Gulf of Mexico, according to the EIA report.

But after that, domestic production will decline steadily without access to the Alaskan coastal plain, and it is expected to fall to 4.6 million barrels a day by 2025. With demand increasing, imports will continue to play a larger role, jumping from 9.7 million barrels a day to nearly 16 million barrels a day, about 70 percent of what is consumed by 2025.

With the 876,000 barrels the refuge could provide a day, the reliance on imports would drop to 66 percent of domestic consumption, the EIA analysis said. The study said it would likely have little impact on world oil prices ? perhaps reducing the price by 30 to 50 cents a barrel if prices were in the $27-a-barrel range.

It would drop the percentage of imports from 70% to 66%...4%...best case scenario...

It would only take about 50 cents of the price of a barrel of oil...at best.

James Kendell, one of the authors of the study, said the refuge would add to domestic production, but ?when you?re talking of a world oil market of over 75 million barrels a day, adding 900,000 barrels by 2025 is a drop in the bucket.?

No one is certain how much oil is beneath the Alaskan coastal plain. In assuming 876,000-barrel-a-day production, the EIA assumed the ?mean? estimate provided by geologists of 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable reserves. Geologists say there could be less or much more. Environmentalists argue that much of that oil may not be economically recoverable if oil prices decline.

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: B00ne
According to DoI there are technically recoverable (whatever that makes economically recoverable) 10 bill barrels of oil .

So that is about 1year and 4 month of US oil consumption.

The question should be: is such a drop in the bucket worth the environmental cost? If the answer is is yes then by all means go for it. However it will not reduce US dependency on foreign oil (for long).

Short answer is no. Only reason this is happening is because the Cheney administration is pro-development rather than pro-conservation; and the steep price of oil right now makes domestic oil interests salivate at potential profits (however limited in duration they will actually be).

 

[KingPhil]

Senior year in high school back in 1997....... gas was $0.89 / gallon!

Today...... 2005........ gas is $2.38 / gallon!

INSANE!

I don't care to hear about how over in Europe their gas prices are 3x as much as ours.....

When the war first started, everyone was b1tchin' about "No war for oil"....... well now you mis-informed know -it- alls really screwed us haha

We take over an oil bearing country...... yet gas prices still GO UP??? Where is the war for oil there? Bush can't lower prices now, or all you hippies will say "see, we told ya, we went to war for cheaper oil"......

I hate tree huggers......... but I hate high oil / gas prices even more

 

[Brutuskend]

I'm a long hair, tree hugging hippie.

Again' it!

 

[sfgtwsac]

If you really want to know about ANWR -- in an unbiased manner -- I suggest reading the Congressional Research Service paper found here CRS Report

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: sfgtwsac
If you really want to know about ANWR -- in an unbiased manner -- I suggest reading the Congressional Research Service paper found here CRS Report

Good link, but what makes it any "unbiased" than other sources linked here?

Oil prices, geologic characteristics, cash flow, and any instruction constraints would be
among the most important factors affecting the development rates and production levels
associated with given volumes of oil resources. The U.S. Energy Information Administration
estimated that, at a relatively fast development rate, production would peak 15-20 years after the start of development, with maximum daily production rates of roughly 0.015% of the resource. Production associated with a slower rate would peak about 25 years after the start of development, at a daily rate equal to about 0.0105% of the resource. Peak production associated with a technically recoverable resource of 5.0 billion bbl at the faster development rate would be 750,000 bbl per day, roughly 4% of current U.S. petroleum consumption (about 20.5 million bbl per day). (For economic impacts of development, see CRS Report RS21030.)

That's even less than is estimated in the newer study...

 

[SilentButDeadly]

Originally posted by: sfgtwsac
If you really want to know about ANWR -- in an unbiased manner -- I suggest reading the Congressional Research Service paper found here CRS Report

Not sure if it will be unbiased, but I will check that out.

 

[Eli]

Good to see Insane3D ontop of things.

It's not worth it. It's a mere drop in the bucket.

 

[0roo0roo]

$2.5 per gallon? f*ck the raindeer
seriously its not gonna cause extinctions. its just going to make it um..less virginal. i don't care if its virginal or not as long as they don't go spraying oil on baby seals.