Community | August 17, 2008 | 33 comments

Did you hear that Alaska has more oil than the Middle East?

source: http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/08/18/oil_myths/

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TravG73
Petroleum may be in short supply these days, but the United States does have a related surplus: myths of oil abundance.

You don't have to drill deep into our political discourse to find suspect stories about oil, with politicians peddling the flagrantly false notion that China is producing oil off the coast of Florida, while right-wing activist Jerome Corsi claims oil is not a fossil fuel but "a natural product the Earth generates constantly."

Such declarations serve a political purpose: to make oil drilling seem like an easy solution to our current energy crisis, to marginalize warnings that we are running short on oil, and to stymie efforts at conservation or developing alternatives to fossil fuels.

Along with these high-profile claims, an array of books, Internet forums and YouTube videos constitute a subterranean layer of storytelling, creating a narrative of perpetually cheap domestic oil being denied to us by a dictatorial government. These stories may be working: Offshore oil drilling is now favored by 63 percent of the electorate. But there's another side to them: They reveal our inability to accept that the United States is not always a land of plenty.

"In America, we're a frontier nation, and so the idea is that just beyond the next ridge is the perfect farmland, a giant oil field or an abundant supply of timber," says Robert Kaufmann, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University. "People don't like the idea that the frontier is now closed and we've got to live within limits."

These narratives also require spectacularly limited scientific literacy about oil: what it is, how we find it, how much remains.

The evidence for oil's organic origins is robust and diverse. Briefly, it includes biomarkers, or chemical compounds found in both ancient organisms and petroleum formed at the same time; geochemical evidence allowing scientists to match types of oil with their source rocks; lab experiments mimicking oil formation; and literally a world of geological data helping us find oil today.

Thunder Horse, a drilling area that BP operates in the Gulf of Mexico:

Moreover, Thunder Horse also defies "fossil-fuel" oil theorists who like to argue that oil comes from dead dinosaurs and decaying ancient forests. With the water depth of nearly 2 miles, Thunder Horse is truly an ultra-deep project. From the floor of the Gulf, BP has drilled down another 6 miles to hit oil. What evidence is there that any ancient dinosaur ever walked on land that is now 8 miles down? Moreover, geologists identify the deposits in which BP has found oil in the Thunder Horse Field as Miocene, a period that occurred in the Cenozoic Era, some 24,000 years ago. Dinosaurs by then were long gone, having disappeared at the end of the Mesozoic Era, some 65 million years ago.

Corsi makes multiple scientific mistakes here. Scientists never argue that oil comes from "dead dinosaurs and decaying ancient forests." Again, oil derives from fossilized marine microorganisms. The Miocene was not a point in time "24,000 years ago." It lasted from about 5 million years ago to 23 million years ago. In geological language, it's an epoch, not a period, and according to BP, the rocks at Thunder Horse appear to be 5 to 11 million years old. Moreover, oil tends to seep upward over time, so we typically extract it from rocks that are younger than those in which it was formed anyway.

Finally, while dinosaur references are irrelevant to oil, basic geological concepts -- erosion, plate tectonics -- explain how any creature might walk on land that later becomes deeply submerged. The National Research Council suggests students should know these concepts by the eighth grade.

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33 comments // Did you hear that Alaska has more oil than the Middle East?

  • techsyslonghorn
    • 0
      techsyslonghorn  

    • The oil doesn't matter. It's about the US dollar. The price of oil is the same as it was 3 years ago, the Dollar has just taken a huge dump. If the dollar was stronger the inflation of gas prices wouldn't be as bad.

    • 3 years ago
  • Girlwonder88
  • ichigo113
  • regularrf
  • harechrishna
    • 0
      harechrishna  

    • I agree with pattyhax. Look how much we have cut back on driving since gas prices have shot through the roof. Now, the price is coming down because there's less demand. We have to make it inconvenient to drive, otherwise no one will bother with finding an alternative. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • Pattyhax
    • 0
      Pattyhax  

    • Okay so we know oil doesn't have a long-term future (in terms of centuries of use) and it's consumption is detrimental to our ecosystems.

      We also know that with the infrastructure in place, it's going to be a slow process finding and adapting new technology to replace energy sources where oil currently the operating fuel.

      Now when faced with rising costs of oil, our free market system has offered great incentives for developing better energy technology, more so now than almost any other time in history.

      My opinion: We use this period of high fuel costs to continue to offer lucrative incentives to alternative energy and drive innovation. If we continue to expand our oil infrastructure, and thus our dependency, we will ultimately be prolonging a detrimental and soon-to-be inferior energy source.

      We all hate paying high prices for gas, but I believe in the free market system and the way it fixes problems. This is our opportunity to work towards a long term solution, the only question being do we have the audacity to suffer through the short term expenses?

    • 3 years ago
  • fhovie
    • 0
      fhovie  

    • We are addicted to comfort, pleasure and pride. These things require oil. We are born that way and education will not help much.

      I hate SUVs but am glad we live in a country where people can choose what they want. I don't mind if stupid things are more expensive - a lot more expensive. I think that stupidity should always cost more.

      Maybe we should put a scale in front of the gas pump and increase the per gallon price based on the vehicle weight - that way stupid people will not bid up the costs for normal people. Of course simple answers are generally not fair to everyone but it makes me feel good considering them.

    • 3 years ago
  • PajamaDan
    • 0
      PajamaDan  

    • Why don't people realize that the main problem with oil ISN'T 'running out', the main problem is 'poisoning Earth'. I guess we don't care about the future, as long as our wallets are in tact. Greed, stupidity, naivete', and hatred have united,... to make money the most precious thing in the world.

      The Humans Are Dead

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • PajamaDan
  • Neghie
    • 0
      Neghie  

    • Yes, I heard. But I think oil is the problem period. Drilling more holes into the earth isn't going to solve or dependency and it will simply continue adding on to our global warming problem?!...

    • 3 years ago
  • deathcab1
  • deathcab1
  • lcdoll920
  • J_Jammer
  • arcticspirit
  • victimofcoal
    • 0
      victimofcoal  

    • George W. Bush " America is addicted to oil."
      How do you get away from this addiction you ask?
      You drill for more oil.
      Are we really that stupid?
      Evidently so.

    • 3 years ago
  • teddy14
  • hail_eris
  • anglcazn
  • innocent_criminal
  • chipsinabox
    • 0
      chipsinabox  

    • Who cares about Alaska's oil? We shouldn't be using natural gas by now, and I'll be damned if politicians can get away by drilling that beautiful state to the bone.

    • 3 years ago
  • stone246
    • 0
      stone246  

    • The key to America's future is an educated public. but as long as the public thinks formal education is a waste of time and a form of elitism then by God we are screwed and we have no one to blame but ourselves for the failure of our great nation.

    • 3 years ago
  • symn8
    • 0
      symn8  

    • with the current increase in oil usage and world consumption I doubt that increase in oil drilling would lead to lower gas prices.

    • 3 years ago
  • stone246
    • 0
      stone246  

    • On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79% of federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.
      _ Onshore, 72% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use
      planning or environmental reviews.
      _ Between 1999 and 2007, drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands increased more than 361%.
      Since 2004, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; in that same time, only 18,954 wells were actually drilled.
      _ Oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.
      _ Onshore, of the 47.5 million acres of federal lands leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually producing oil and gas.
      _ Offshore, only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently producing oil or gas.
      _ Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land that are not producing oil and gas.
      _ The 68 million acres of leased, inactive federal land could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.
      _ That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75%.
      _ 4.8 million barrels of oil equals more than six times the estimated peak
      production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
      _ Development of and production from the 68 million acres currently under lease but not in production would cut US imports

    • 3 years ago
  • Ricky84
    • 0
      Ricky84  
    • stone246:

      Well that sounds nice and all Stone but when you look at the ENTIRE picture it spells out a completely different story then the one you’re presenting. You should state the source of your stats because I think your cherry picking your info to fit your agenda.

      Most notably your interpretation of the standard leasing agreement is completely wrong. 72% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources in the US are not accessible under a standard leasing agreement. In Truth only 8% of oil and 10% of natural gas is accessible under a standard lease term in the US.

      The link below will take you to a Department of the Interior website. Go there if you want the full picture. I’ll post the most important stuff below so you don’t have to weed through all the legal mumbo jumbo.

      http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/oil_and_gas/EPCA_III/EPCA_III_faq.2.html

      Federal lands with potential for oil or natural gas resources, including split-estate minerals, total 279.0 million acres.

      Undeveloped oil resources under these Federal lands total 30.5 billion barrels, comprising 24.2 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable resources and 6.3 billion barrels of reserves growth.

      Undeveloped gas resources under these Federal lands total 231.0 trillion cubic feet, comprising 214.1 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable resources and 16.9 trillion cubic feet of reserves growth.

      Total proved reserves under these Federal lands total 5.3 billion barrels of oil and 68.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

      Approximately 60 percent (165.9 million acres) of the Federal land is inaccessible. Based on resource estimates, these lands contain about 62 percent of the oil (19.0 billion barrels) and 41 percent of the natural gas (94.5 trillion cubic feet).

      Approximately 23 percent (65.2 million acres) of the Federal land is accessible with restrictions on oil and gas operations beyond standard stipulations. Based on resource estimates, these lands contain 30 percent of the oil (9.3 billion barrels) and 49 percent of the gas (112.9 trillion cubic feet).

      Approximately 17 percent of the Federal land in these areas (48.0 million acres) is accessible under standard lease terms. Based on resource estimates, these lands contain 8 percent of the oil (2.3 billion barrels) and 10 percent of the gas (23.6 trillion cubic feet)

      The study area with the largest amount of onshore Federal oil and gas resources is Northern Alaska, which contains 17.8 billion barrels of oil and 79.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. About 75 percent of the oil and 66 percent of the natural are inaccessible; the remainder is accessible with additional restrictions (primarily because of the requirement for drilling only during the winter). Virtually none are accessible under standard lease terms.

      The study area with the largest amount of Federal land is the Eastern Great Basin, which contains 54.6 million acres. About 51 percent of the land is inaccessible and 21 percent is accessible with additional restrictions. About 28 percent is accessible under standard lease terms.

    • 3 years ago
  • stephenthomson
  • symn8
    • 0
      symn8  

    • this part of the article to me sounds more interesting.

      Have you heard that there's enough oil in Alaska to supply the United States for the next two centuries, more than in the entire Middle East, but a government plot is keeping it underground? If so, attribute it to Lindsey Williams, a kind of oil evangelist, who's been making these claims since the 1970s.

      Back then, Williams coauthored a book, "The Energy Non Crisis," asserting that vast political machinations were preventing oil companies from exploiting Alaska's riches. Today he's on YouTube, saying Alaska has "possibly the largest oil pool on the face of the earth," which remains untapped "by order of the government." New drilling, Williams suggests, will lower gas prices within 12 months. If you like implausible oil stories, this is for you. One of Williams' YouTube clips has been viewed nearly 500,000 times, and a generic version of the story holds that Alaska has more oil than the Arabian peninsula.

      Now consider reality on Alaska's North Slope, the oil area that includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It can take two or three years to drill a single exploratory well there, because such drilling is only possible for a few months at a time in the winter, when the permafrost is frozen hard enough to support equipment. Meanwhile, infrastructure can be transported there only by ship, in two or three summer months. To drill permanent wells, oil companies lay down a thick gravel "pad," acres in size, which allows for year-round drilling, by keeping equipment and housing safe from summer thaws and preventing them from melting the permafrost. Pipeline corrosion problems have been extensive. The EIA forecasts that if Congress opened up ANWR, it would take eight to 12 years to even start production.

      Does this sound like a place that will produce more oil than the Middle East? Alaska is about the same size as Iran, four-fifths as big as Saudi Arabia, and huge portions of the state consist of mountain ranges where drilling is impossible. The EIA estimates that about 10.4 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from ANWR, just over a year of American consumption. Saudi Arabia alone has about 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The verdict here: Get real

      "There's a reality out there people don't want to recognize," concludes Kaufmann. "Clearly technology has improved. Oil prices are higher. We deregulated the industry. We've done almost everything. There are a few areas offshore that are closed off. It's not going to make a difference. The sooner people realize that and stop dreaming about energy independence or one huge undiscovered field that's going to solve all our problems, the better off we'll be."

    • 3 years ago
  • ihateyou
  • symn8
    • 0
      symn8  
    • ihateyou:

      Damn and they say college is a waste of time..... dude I hope you were kidding. Alaska is part of the territory the united states controls. that is Alaska is one of the 50 states that constitutes the united STATES of America. so why go to war we own the darn place.

    • 3 years ago
  • ihateyou
  • deathcab1
    • 0
      deathcab1  
    • ihateyou:

      Hey... Just interested, but what state did you think replaced Alaska?
      and just because you've never been to somewhere doesnt mean that you shouldnt have a basic knowledge of something youve been taught since you first grade (assuming that you were born and raised in the United States of America)

    • 3 years ago
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