As I was munching on a burger at Culver's yesterday, CNN was reporting that the reserves in the ANWR would provide between three months to two year's worth of crude at our current consumption rate of 7 billion barrels/year. The ANWR estimates range from somewhere between 1.9 billion to possibly as much as 16 billion barrels. Of course, their three-month/two year math discounts other sources of oil in the U.S., but it's still a relative drop in the bucket. 10 years to drill and pump, for a small drink of oil to feed a thirsty nation. Interesting, and almost in the Chinese meaning of the word.
And if we had started the work on ANWR back when it was proposed, over ten years ago, that oil would be flowing as we pound on our keyboards...
Besides, drilling in ANWR is less about the oil under ANWR than it is about
attitude. As long as the green weenies rule the roost and keep it from happening, every other agent in the energy industry (from producers, to refiners, to speculators) know that we are not yet serious about any new production or exploiting known resources, such as the tar sands, oil shale, or the oil in the Gulf of Mexico (that Cuba will have no problem drilling for).
