Posted on 02/25/2005 8:06:45 AM PST by thackney
JUNEAU -- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens on Thursday told Alaska lawmakers that barriers to building a North Slope gas pipeline should be removed so the state isn't crowded out of the market by a flood of imported liquefied natural gas.
The key is to smooth the permitting process and develop the pipeline -- which is still only a concept estimated to cost $20 billion -- so that it's not hampered by lawsuits, said Stevens, R-Alaska.
"This project will create up to 400,000 new jobs, and it must be started now -- this year," Stevens said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
WE need this pipeline to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to shove it in the tree-huggers faces.
Huge Alaska Oil Reserves Go Unused
After 30 years, an insider finally acknowledges the United States
has all the oil and gas it needs.
The United States has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia but this happy though shocking information has been covered up for years.
The wells have been drilled, it's merely a matter of turning on the faucets to supply America's needs for 200 years.
These astounding revelations have been con firmed by a 30-year veteran oil exe cutive with leukemia who has decided to speak out.
In 1980, Lindsey Williams wrote a book, The Energy Non-Crisis, based upon his eye witness accounts during the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. As a chaplain assigned to executive status and the advisory board of Atlantic Richfield & Co. (ARCO), he was privy to detailed information.
"All of our energy problems could have been solved in the '70s with the huge discovery of oil under Gull Island, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska," Williams said. "There is more pure grade oil there than in all of Saudi Arabia. Gull Island contains as much oil and natural gas as Americans could use in 200 years."
Oddly though, immediately after this massive discovery, the federal government ordered the rigs to be capped and oil production shut down.
Developing Alaskan oil would make the United States completely independent of oil imports, Williams said in his book.
Why is the government covering up such good news? Why does it want to be dependent on imported oil? Do international financiers who are heavily invested in the oil industry want to keep the supply limited and prices up?
Will the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), investigate what could be a criminal cover-up? Will the appropriate House committees in quire? Or the Justice Department? Since the cover-up has extended through four presidential administrations, only public outrage can force action.
"Everything you hear on the evening news and out of Washington is garbage," said Jim Lawler, an oil production manager with ARCO. "Eight wells have already been drilled in the areas environmentalists are claiming we must not go in. We have already been in and out. There was no damage done. All we need to do is start production."
The mainstream media is mind-molding public opinion by repeatedly showing running caribou, touting environmentalists' claims that the caribou and other endangered species and habitats would be destroyed.
"The Alaska Fish and Game Department just did a study on the porcupine caribou in Prudhoe Bay. The size of the herds has increased since 1969 by 35 percent. The pipeline area is a protected designation and the caribou have figured this out. They have migrated into this area for protection," Lawler said.
The Alaskan pipeline was built in 1977 and runs from Prudhoe Bay to the southern shores of Alaska in Valdez.
Lawler maintains that several things can be done to reduce American energy bills.
The Alaskan pipeline can be permitted to run at full capacity. In addition, the Department of Energy can allow a new pipeline to be built across Canada and connected to the existing system in the United States.
Alaska can also ship oil to the West Coast immediately. Alaskan oil is of such high grade and low sulfur content that it can be utilized at any refinery, without damage to the environment.
"Currently, an estimated 4,000 barrels a day are liquefied at Prudhoe Bay, but government regulation controls that limit," added Lawler.
Liquefying is the process by which oil sludge brought from the ground is processed to be transported.
Lawler said the existing Alaskan pipe line was built to hold another four-foot diameter pipe above it, which could be used for natural gas. However, he said it "is not ne cessary because the Alaskan pipe line has never been permitted to run at full capacity."
This same situation can be multiplied in Wyoming, Texas and other oil-productive areas across the country. The government has imposed strict orders not to produce.
And in a real emergency, Lawler contends hydrogen plants can sprout up in less than six months with just a nuclear reactor placed at sea.
"One nuclear reactor can power all of Los Angeles," Lawler said.
Natural gas is readily available; Prud hoe Bay has 48 747-jet engines pumping one billion cubic feet of natural gas back into the ground 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They have nowhere else to put the natural gas.
Gull Island Will Blow Your Mind!
As the wind took that huge black cloud farther and farther north, it burned fiercely and seemed to turn an even deeper black. The ARCO official seemed to have an excitement about him that I had never seen before. He was elated and could hardly contain himself. He did not usually get this way ... it was not his nature.
"This must be a big one!" he exclaimed. "Something exciting must be happening. Maybe it's another big discovery." He looked and watched, and kept looking—he stood there as though he was frozen, but he was too exuberant to freeze. It seemed as though our hands were numb because we simply could not stop watching the size of that big burn, nor could we stop the excitement caused by what we were looking at. At last he looked back at me and said, "Chaplain, I think we have just proven something phenomenal—something we have been looking for for a long time. Come on, quick! Let's go back to base and look at the technical data. Let's see what we can find out about statistics. Chaplain, I think this is going to be exciting!" (Was that ever an understatement!?!)
We got back into the pickup truck, and he started off very quickly. He really drove fast that day. As he did so, he explained to me how you can tell what an oil well is going to produce by the burn, what the volume and the quantity are going to be, and what the pressure and the depth will be. He explained much of the technical detail as to how they drilled that well. He himself had followed it very closely, because they thought that possibly it might produce another pool of oil. They had hoped it might prove to be a pool as big as the one from which they were producing at Prudhoe Bay. If they could find another pool of oil and prove it, it would be one, of the greatest finds in years.
So we rode very quickly back to the base and walked into the office. He did not hesitate for one moment to show me what it was that had been proven. He took out the statistics and showed me the papers, and let me see the proof of the find. He went from place to place that day with excitement in his voice as he told a few officials to come and look. The three or four officials that he had called gathered around to see what had happened at Gull Island.
All the time I was trying my best to find out what it was in specifics, because after all, I did not know all those terms he was using. I was a layman, and as a layman and a Chaplain, I didn't understand some of the data they were discussing, so I cannot present it here. They were so busy and excited themselves that they did not have the time to explain technicalities to me. However, I could tell by the excitement they were showing, and the way they were expressing themselves, that something big had happened.
After everyone had left the office, that oil company official said to me, "Chaplain, we have just discovered and proven another pool of oil as big and maybe even bigger than the Prudhoe Bay Field. This is phenomenal beyond words." He again said, "There is no energy crisis. Now we can build a second pipeline—now we can produce not only 2 million barrels of oil every 24 hours, but we can produce 4 million barrels of oil every 24 hours. Chaplain, this is what we as oil company officials have been waiting for."
Then suddenly the excitement was wiped off his face as he looked back at me and said, "I hope the Federal government doesn't pose any difficulty over this because of the fact that it's located on the very edge of the designated area from which we can produce." Then he looked back again and said, "Chaplain, if this is allowed to be produced, we can build another pipeline, and in another year's time we can flood America with Alaskan oil, our own oil, and we won't have to worry about the Arabs. We won't be dependent on any nation on earth. Chaplain, if there are two pools of oil here this big, there are many, many dozens of pools of oil all over this North Slope of Alaska." He went on lo say, "Chaplain, America has just become energy independent." I must repeat that ... this high official of ARCO said, "America has just become energy independent."
I do not think that I have ever seen a man so excited as that man was that day, as he explained to me about that find at Gull Island.
That day I went on my way rejoicing. My, I was happy! This meant that if we could produce from the entire North Slope of Alaska, America would be oil independent! Four million barrels of oil every 24 hours-just from two of the many pools of oil! We don't have to depend on anybody. The energy crisis. had just come to a screeching halt—this ought to hit the front page in every newspaper across America! This was the most exciting thing since the original find at Prudhoe Bay. Homes won't go cold anymore. American citizens will not be waiting in line for crude oil or gasoline any longer.
I think that night I hardly slept, for I had just witnessed one of the most spectacular events since the original find at Prudhoe Bay. I remember that evening as I lay in bed, trying to count sheep and trying to find some way to go to sleep. I kept going over all the things I had seen, and what I had been told. In my mind I kept trying to think about that technical data and to visualize it, and to understand some of the statistics I had seen. I thought that I would wake up the next morning and hear the entire nation of America literally shouting for joy. I thought that no longer would there be any talk of an energy crisis. Yes, we are energy independent!
Somehow in the early hours of the morning I must have drifted off to sleep, with visions of oil burns in my mind instead of sugar plums. "This means the end of the energy crisis for America" kept going through my head—for now they had proven two major pools on the North Slope of Alaska, and this oil official was exactly right and the other soundings were probably right too, and there would be many pools of oil here.
The only thing they had to do at this point was to let private enterprise loose. Let them do what American private enterprise can do so gloriously—let them do what American enterprise has done so gloriously throughout all these years. Just let them have an incentive, and with an incentive like this, gas prices would come down, so that industry could run full speed ahead. The trucks would not be left without diesel fuel. There would be plenty of gas for my vehicle! Prices? Ha!-Tell the Arabs they can have their old oil! We don't need it. American enterprise has again done what they have always been able to do ... they have produced. Once again Yankee ingenuity has come to the aid of the American people.
So that night I went to bed dreaming of the glory of our great nation, as a redblooded American, proud of the fact that the Yankees had produced again, just as they always have. Yes, I went to bed on a happy note that night.
When I woke up the next morning, it was snowing outside. I had to get through the chow line right quick. I wanted to eat my breakfast in a hurry, to get back there to that camp again. I was quite sure that my excitement was shared by everyone by now, and that by the time I arrived there, the place would be crawling with reporters gathering all the data, for after all, a discovery of this magnitude should be spread all over the country.
I kind of wished that I'd called up that radio station that had asked me to give any special information, for this, of course, was phenomenal, the most phenomenal thing I had ever known. I wished I had taken them up on that toll-free call they had asked me to make when there was something special happening—oh, how I wished that I had called John Davis before and told him of this tremendous find. John Davis was with radio station KSRM, and I should have called him so he could announce this wonderful news to the whole world. I wished I had told him that they had just discovered a pool of oil as big or bigger than the one at Prudhoe Bay, so he could put it on the national wire service. I wished I had done that the night before. Just a few hours later, oh, how I wished that! What I would have given today, if only I had done that yesterday! But I didn't. The fact is, at that time, I don't think the full magnitude of that find had fully registered on me yet.
That morning I finished breakfast quickly. I remember I got in that pickup truck and cranked it up and headed off to the base camp. I didn't even wait for the truck to warm up. This was exciting.This was phenomenal. The American people ought to rejoice over this!
I walked into the base camp, and there was nothing exceptional going on. I went by the security guard, and he was just nonchalantly sitting there, as if nothing special had taken place. I said, "Sir, where is Mr. So and So?" He said, "He's out riding around in his vehicle." I asked, "Can you call him on the radio?" He answered, "Sure."
He called him on the radio and said, "Chaplain Williams is here to see you." The man called back with what seemed to be an air of fear in his voice, and he said, "Chaplain Williams? Yes, please tell him to stay right there and not leave. I need to see him. Tell him to please wait for me in my office. I'll be in immediately."
I went to his office and sat down, and wondered why it was that on this day the trumpets were not sounding. This was a phenomenal thing, and yet there seemed to be no fuss at all about it. Sure enough, without delay, the oil company official soon walked into his office and closed the door behind him. He looked at me with a frown on his face and said, "Chaplain, what you saw yesterday, don't you ever as long as you live, let anything out that would tell anyone the data that you saw on those technical sheets."
I said, "But sir, that's going to end the energy crisis in America!"
He said, "No, Chaplain, it's not. Quite to the contrary." As he sat down behind his desk, I noticed that he was very worried, and then he continued, "Chaplain, you weren't supposed to see what I showed you yesterday. I'm sorry I let you go with me out there to watch that burn. I'm even more perturbed that I let you look at the technical data, because, Chaplain, you and I might both be in trouble if you ever tell the story of Gull Island."
I should stop at this point and state that he did not tell me not to tell the story of Gull Island, but he merely said, "We both may be in trouble if you ever tell the story of Gull Island." I watched with my own eyes what I never thought I could see in the United States of America —maybe in socialist Russia, yet—maybe under a dictatorship, but in America? No! After all, this was the country "of the people, by the people, for the people." Within a few days after the find and the proof of the find (proof of a vast amount of oil), I listened as that official told me that the government had ordered the oil company to seal the documents, withdraw the rig, cap the well, and not release the information about the Gull Island find. That oil field is partially under the area that the oil companies were not allowed to
produce from—it is in the Arctic Ocean and microorganisms of that area might be destroyed if an oil spill ever happens. Seal the documents, withdraw the rig, and cap the well!
This company official said to me,"Chaplain, that great pool of oil is probably as big as the Prudhoe oil field, it has been proven, drilled into, and tested—we know what is there and we know the amount that is there, but the government has ordered us not to produce that well, or reveal any information as to what is at Gull Island."
I could hardly believe what I heard that day. I walked out of the oil company official's office very perturbed, because again we could be lied to, the American people would be deceived again—the truth would not be told. As I walked out of that office I realized that I was only one of about six men alive who would even know the truth about Gull Island, or would ever even see the technical data. I was astonished that day because of this restriction on releasing data about the production from beneath a small island out in the Arctic Ocean. This could end the oil crisis, but I had come to the conclusion in my mind, with no doubt whatsoever, that the Federal government would never want that oil produced.
It was not the oil companies that ordered the rig removed and the well capped. It was not the oil companies that said, "We cannot go beyond our 100-mile boundary." It was not the oil companies that said, "We will not tell the American people the truth." Rather, it was your Federal and State government ... and my Federal and State government—the officials elected by us to represent us for our welfare.
Gull Island was capped and the rig was removed, and the truth has never been' told .
Even if we didn't "need" the pipeline, I want it. To piss off the enviro-wankers, if nothing else.
This is a natural gas pipeline. Natural gas is (generally, the odd fleet vehicle excepting) used for heating or electrical generation, not gasoline, which is the major use of imported oil.
While I suppose there will be an indirect decrease on the dependence of imported oil, the real issue is just short supply of natural gas.
In fact, currently, there are NO imports (Canada and Mexico not withstanding) of LNG, hyperbole notwithstanding.
Currently, there are plans for off-shore ports for LNG ships, but there are some considerable hurdles, largely that LNG is much more explosive than crude oil.
Hence, the unloading facilities will have to be built quite a ways offshore. I predict they will be built offshore of Mexico to keep the EPA off people's backs.
At the present, there are no real fleets of LNG ships nor the necessary facilities to offload LNG.
bump
I don't believe that story, if only because no one in the oilfield refers to "pools" of oil.
But there are strategic proven reserves maintained by the US.
The admitted US government strategy is to use up the rest of the world's oil --- while relatively cheap --- and it still is --- at $52 a barrel, oil is half of its real cost in 1982 ---- then only turn to our reserves when the rest of the world is scrambling.
It is a wise, long-term, position.
Here's the money question - without subsidies paid for by tax payers, can this pipeline deliver natural gas cheaper than it can be obtained from other sources?
One of the problems with Alaska oil is that it is so darn expensive to bring it out of the ground and get it to the mainland that it can't be economicaly justified.
Compare the cost of extracting and delivering Alaska oil to the mainland and you'll typically find that it is far more expensive than importing it from elsewhere (keep in mind that most of the oil exported into the U.S. comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuala, not Saudi Arabia).
In fact according to the Department of Energy we do import small amounts of natural gas in the form of LNG today
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html
There are four LNG terminals in service in the US. The Distrigas facility in Everett, Massachusetts; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Elba Island, Georgia; and Cove Point, Maryland.
LNG imports in 2003 totalled 506 Bcf.
Taken from this document
On October 12, 2001, the U.S. Coast Guard lifted a ban on LNG tankers from Boston harbor. The ban, in effect starting September 26, 2001 (two weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC), was established in response to security and safety concerns about the ships that bring LNG to the import facility of Distrigas of Massachusetts (a Division of Tractebel, Inc.). The decision enabled the reopening of the Distrigas facility in Everett, Massachusetts, which received 45 shipments containing 99 Bcf of natural gas in 2000, mostly from Trinidad, accounting for 44% of total LNG imports into the United States that year. The Distrigas facility is one of four currently active LNG facilities in the United States (plus one in Puerto Rico). The other three active U.S. LNG facilities are located in Lake Charles, Louisiana; Elba Island, Georgia; and Cove Point, Maryland, which received its first commercial LNG cargo in 23 years in August 2003. Cove Point is now the nation's largest LNG import facility, and a new 2.5-Bcf storage tank is scheduled to be added in January 2005 by its owner, Dominion. Expansion is also planned for the Lake Charles and Elba Island LNG facilitie.
On balance, interest is growing in LNG as a source of natural gas for U.S. electric power generation and also as a source that would provide supply flexibility. EIA expects that LNG imports to the United States will increase sharply beginning in 2007, growing to 2.2 Tcf in 2010 and 4.8 Tcf in 2025. During 2003, the United States received about 506 Bcf of LNG, mainly from Trinidad and Tobago, Algeria, and Qatar.
"Compare the cost of extracting and delivering Alaska oil to the mainland and you'll typically find that it is far more expensive than importing it from elsewhere . . ."
Correct.
For example, the Permian Basin/Delaware Basin and the surroudning areas of Texas/New Mexico have 90% of the oil still in place --- probably comprable to Saudi reserves.
BUT: Saudi has natural lift --- that is, the oil just flows out of the ground --- out here, you have to PUMP it out of the ground. Oil has to be $28 or so a barrel to make this profitable. For a LONG time, it was below $28.
Also, in teh above-cited article the author -- a chaplain -- complains that natural gas is re-injected into the Alaskan oil fields. Well, re-injection is done to keep the reservoir pressure high and make it easier to get the oil out. Duh.
Oops that shoudl be 1.49 trillion barrels of oil or 1490 billion barrels of oil
I fart 506 Bcf after a good Mexican dinner.
The anticipated LNG terminals at issue will be some massive platforms off the coast --- talking TcF. But that is a long time from now.
Thats one mean fart :)
>>>>>I don't believe that story, if only because no one in the oilfield refers to "pools" of oil.
When I found the story a few years ago, I did find cross referencing that backed it up.
I'm on my third hard drive since than and lost much of my notes.
Kathy, are you familiar with any stories about Gull Island?
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