Sounds good, but in fact what you are saying has *nothing* to do with the reality of oil exploration-production on the North Slope.
In fact there are exactly three areas right now which are "significant" as far as exploration goes. It happens that there is no expectation of any huge amounts of oil being found at any of them (or anywhere else in Alaska). That is exactly why these three locations *are* of significant interest!
There is a huge amount of oil still in the area of Prudhoe Bay, with another 10-12 billion barrels to be pumped out of Prudhoe and Kuparuk, plus another Prudhoe sized reservoir (of almost impossible to produce thick oil) in the West Sak field (which sits directly on top of the existing Kuparuk field) that someday might be technically possible to produce. The three areas of significance are east (ANWR), west (NPRA) and north (Beaufort Sea) areas within 30-50 miles or so of the existing pipelines. And the *only* real significance is that existence of pipelines! (South of Prudhoe has been drilled like a pin cushion, and there just isn't much oil there.)
The problem is that there are *no* areas expected to produce huge quanbreasties, and therefore nobody wants to drill exploratory wells at any great distance from existing production infrastructure, because it simply would not be economical to produce unless something astronomical is found.
And therein lies the rub! The Beaufort Sea should simply be totally off limits. Same with ANWR and the same with the closest part of NPRA! They are *all* environmental disasters waiting to happen. We have *no* technology to clean up an oil spill if there is ice in the water, and for most of the year that is exactly what the surface Beaufort Sea is, ice. ANWR was set aside to protect the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and *every* credible biologist that has ever studied on the North Slope agrees that oil exploration on the coastal plain of ANWR would be a disaster. NPRA was in fact reserved for oil development, and exploration there has been going on at a slow pace since the 1940's. It has two crucial areas that should be protected. The Colville River and the area around and just north of Teshekpuk Lake. Of course the lake is directly west of the existing Alpine field... the same as ANWR is just east of Badami.
The oil companies do *not* expect any large finds in any of these areas, which is exactly the reason they do not want to just move past the areas which need protection and look in other areas with equal potential. The potential is so poor that what they expect to find simply would not justify the expense of producing anything that far from an existing pipeline.
Such bullpoo. We've been *closing* refineries, because they were excess capacity and not economical to keep on line. Regardless, *none* of the oil from the North Slope is being shipped to anywhere other than the US.
Ignorance on your part though. See my previous post in this thread for details.
It won't. Regardless, your statement is silly. The *rest* of Alaska is already open to exploration. If it had the potential you claim, it would be at the top of the list for exploration. It doesn't, and it isn't.
Which is why they have been pulling support for such things as Arctic Power, the propaganda machine set up by the State of Alaska. Their money is better spent where it might find oil.
Try backing that up with facts. You can't. There are *millions* of acres of Alaska that can be drilled any day they'd like.
What's the sense of destroying places like ANWR, the Beaufort Sea and Teshekpuk lake in order to make multi-national oil companies wealthy? All it will do is put the US in a position of eventually have absolutely *no* reserves.
--
