Reply #1: Big Oil Is No Longer Interested, At Any Price [View All]

[Strelnikov_]

Big Oil Steps Aside in Battle over Arctic
By Jeff Gerth
The New York Times

Monday 21 February 2005

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/E022205Y.shtml

A Bush adviser says the major oil companies have a dimmer view of the refuge's prospects than the administration does. "If the government gave them the leases for free they wouldn't take them," said the adviser, who would speak only anonymously because of his position. "No oil company really cares about ANWR," the adviser said, using an acronym for the refuge, pronounced "an-war."

. . .

"The enthusiasm of government officials about ANWR exceeds that of industry because oil companies are driven by market forces, investing resources in direct proportion to the economic potential, and the evidence so far about ANWR is not promising," Mr. Kelley said.