Published: April 29, 2008 06:07 pm            

It’s time to drill in ANWR

To drill or not to drill oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been debated since the 1970s. The time to drill is now.

Many polls have indicated a majority of Americans favor not drilling in the ANWR. Overnight, the national average price Americans pay to gas up rose 0.4 cent overnight to a record $3.603 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Recently, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said he does not rule out oil prices reaching $200 a barrel, even though supply is adequate, because the market is driven by the dollar’s slide, Algerian government newspaper El Moudjahid reported on Monday.

If that happens, gas could reach $8 to $10 per gallon. Most agree drilling for oil in the ANWR will not end our dependence on foreign oil, but it will put a dent in it. Some oil companies have said the oil taken from the ground there wouldn’t reach the market for 10 years. So now is the time to drill for the future.

According to Wikipedia.org, a 1998 United States Geological Survey study indicated there is a 95 percent probability that at least 4.3 billion barrels and a five percent possibility that as much as 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil exists in the AWNR 1002 area, with a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels.

In addition, in the entire assessment area, which covers not only land under federal jurisdiction, but also native lands and adjacent state waters within three miles, technically recoverable oil is estimated to be at least 5.7 billion and as much as 16.0 billion barrels, with a mean value of 10.4 billion barrels.

The US consumes about 20 million barrels daily. If the AWNR oil reserves were used to supply five percent of the US daily consumption— most is imported from Canada (19 percent), Mexico (15 percent), Saudi Arabia (11.5 percent), Nigeria (10.5 percent) and Venezuela (10.5 percent)— the reserves, using the low figure of 4.3 billion barrels, would last approximately 4,300 days, or almost 12 years. Using the high estimate, the reserves would last approximately 11,800 days, or 32 years. If the ANWR was used to meet 100 percent of US demand, it would last for 215 days under the low estimate, and 525 days or just 1.4 years if it contained 10.4 billion barrels.

It won't solve all the oil problems in the US, but it will help. As far as the environmental impact, 77 of the 567 wildlife refuges in 22 states in the federal system had oil and gas activities on their land in 2000. Hagerman NWR on the southern coast of Lake Texoma is a prime example of where oil drilling and wildlife protection have co-existed for decades.

        

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