Reply #63: Some facts on ANWR................... [View All]

[gjb]

ANWR projected reserves - 1.4 Million barrels of oil

ANWR contribution to US energy independence - 1.4 Million BLS = 18 months of US oil consumption at the present rate of demand.

At this point the ANWR oil reserve are just an estimate based on USGS geophysiics.

If exploration started tomorrow the first productive well is estimated to come on stream no earlier than 10 years.

No exploration has yet taken place and any company that begins exploration in ANWR today would not even be able to list the project on Amex due to Sarbannes/Oxley compliance rules.

Nor would any major oil producer be able to issue stock in an ANWR exploration venture until proven resources were discovered.

Sarbannes/Oxley stipulates that a resource is not proven unless it can be brought to market, meaning the infrastructure exists to deliver it.

So under the Sarbannes/Oxley rules only a major oil company would be able to underwrite the project even though small exploration companies have a much higher success rate in finding deposits.

The Trans Alaska Pipeline is in a woefull state of repair and will have to be upgreaded and extended.

Add to that AMWR contains mostly natural gas which will require new pipelines and compressor facilities.

And hear's the clincher - Alberta Oil Sands reserves = 175 BILLION barrels of PROVEN resources according to NI 43-101 compliance rules but not Sarbannes/Oxley.

So according to the USGS which follows Sarbannes/Oxley resource guidlines the 175 BILLION barrels of oil in Alberta do not exist even though several million barrels of Alberta heavy crude cross the US border every day.

Compared to the Alberta Oils Sands project which is geopolitically secure, in production and includes strict environmental and reclamation controls, ANWR is unproven, will not see production until several years after Bush leaves office and has no environmental protection regime attached to it.

In fact by it's very nature the ANWR project is a net environmental destroyer.

To add insult to injury the ammount of oil that will be recovered in terms of world consumption would have no noticable impact on US oil supply and prices let alone the world market.

This project has no economic rationalle. The primary reason for pushing it forward is to prove to the World and the American people the will of BUSH Co cannot be resisted or denied.