Dwight: I read your article re NPRA today – very clear and captured the issue well – a couple of comments follow. I am a former executive with Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and Chair of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Owners Committee.
I refer you to my book The Last Alaskan Barrel: An Arctic Oil Bonanza that Never Was and website. The site includes a link to Amazon, bio and video of a speech I made at the Arctic Imperative Summit last summer here in Alaska.
Re NPRA: The USGS revised their resource assessment in 2010 from an earlier 10 billion barrels to below 1 billion barrels NPRA Resource Assessment 2010 and later reduced economically recoverable oil to about 500 million barrels at today’s oil price.
In its 90-year history, NPRA has not produced one barrel of commercial oil. It is not oil-rich and has been shown through exploration drilling to be gas prone. Any real oil is located along a geologic barrier that runs along the coastline called the Barrow Arch. This is in the half of NPRA that the Obama Administration has blocked. In effect, they have made NPRA the new ANWR. But the major issue which you touch on in your article is a pipeline corridor from the Chukchi Sea to TAPS is likely economically impossible across NPRA.
Look for President Obama to approve the Keystone Pipeline later this year – but after Shell drills their exploration wells next summer, look for the end of any further Alaska OCS.
Please contact me with any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
John Miller
John (if I can be so forward),
Thank you for your incisive comments concerning my article yesterday. Very interesting information and startling facts most Americans are unaware of.
Yes, I would be eager to interview later this year or early in President Obama’s second term when the energy policy is more clear. I will be in touch soon for a more concise article in several parts.
Thank you again for your thoughtful email.
Sincerely,
Dwight L. Schwab, Jr.