New USGS Oil & Gas Assessment Of Central North Slope, Alaska

[phantom power]

Reston, VA -- A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the central part of the Alaska North Slope and the adjacent state offshore area finds that there is a significant amount of oil and a large amount of gas that remains to be discovered. The assessment estimates that there are 4.0 billion barrels of oil (BBO), 37.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas, and 478 million barrels of natural gas liquids that are undiscovered and technically recoverable. Technically recoverable resources are the amount of petroleum that may be recovered using current technology.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050619195534.htm

[whistle]

1. Alaska North Slope is in the Arctic Ocean correct?

<link> http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/AlaskaNorthSlopeDrilling.cfm

[IrateCitizen]

2. I wouldn't put too much stock in USGS projections...

Campbell, Deffeyes, etc. are pretty much unanimous in calling their projections "pie in the sky". Their methods for determining gas and oil deposits is basically to say that there has only been certain parts of the earth's surface actively explored, resulting in a certain amount of discovery, therefore if ALL of the earth were explored you could simply project the number of discoveries accordingly.

Never mind the fact that, as Deffeyes has pointed out, oil deposits can only occur under very specific geological conditions that take into account criteria such as depth below the surface, surrounding geological strata, and the presence of "cap rocks" to hold the oil deposits in place.