Anchorage Daily News
The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday took a step toward development of the Willow oil prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a large ConocoPhillips effort that could help revive Alaska’s sagging economic fortunes, though critics say it endangers polar bears and the climate.
The agency, releasing the final environmental review of the project, said the development could produce more than 160,000 barrels of oil daily over 30 years, helping offset dwindling oil production and state revenues in Alaska. Construction would produce more than 1,000 jobs, and lead to more than 400 jobs when it begins operating.
ConocoPhillips has proposed starting construction early next year, with first oil anticipated in 2025, the analysis says. More
Drill Baby Drill
Good news.
As for the ecotards whining about polar bears and the climate, whack their pee-pees (if you can find any).
For Conoco to be making this move while reserves are full and demand is low is pretty gutsy. What do they know that we don’t? ;^)
Where are all the enviro-weenies talking about how the earth is running out of oil? Plus there is all the unused oil in Venezuela.
Venezuela needs a new bus driver!
One issue that Conoco is considering is the need to keep enough oil going through the pipeline to keep it economical. At its peak the Trans Alaska Pipeline flowed over 2 million barrels per day. Now it’s one quarter of that. If we get to the point of shutting down the pipeline the partners are required to bring the entire 800 miles back to its original condition before the pipeline was built. Once that happens production from Northern Alaska will not happen again. ANWR has not even been drilled, and it never will be if there is no pipeline.
While this is certainly good news, keep in mind that drilling activity in the NPR has been going on since the late seventies. My brother in law worked derricks on the rig that drilled the deepest well in Alaska at the time.
Inigok 1 at 20,102 feet in ’79, located in the NPR.
Anyone who is foolish enough to believe that the polar bear and mother earth is endangered by something as highly regulated as an oil field needs to go on a vacation for about two weeks. Mother earth does a bang up job taking everything back to herself, as evidenced by the state of an average un-mowed, un-weeded yard and flower beds.
My son’s property has a rather large, natural oil seep. You should see the plants growing in it! It’s bizarre.
I once had oily ‘recycled asphalt’ put down on 700′ of common driveway. Several neighbors were very concerned. Within several weeks, the grass was shouting out of it like it was the best fertilizer ever.
We are a hydrocarbon planet and damn lucky we are!
Now we’re talkin’!!
We can not drill our way out.
I remember when they were building the Alaska Pipeline and the econuts were saying that it would devastate the caribou population, as it turned out the caribou and other wildlife flourished around the pipeline especially since it was heated in the winter time.