Oil Facts
Posted on: Monday, 7 July 2008, 00:00 CDT
The American public needs to understand some basic facts about oil and gas drilling in the United States.
Exploration wells are drilled where the technology indicates there may be a good oil or gas field. Although the technology always is improving, more than half of the exploration wells drilled between 2002 and 2007 were dry holes.
Development wells are drilled in areas where there is a known oil or gas field beneath the surface (generally referred to as "proven reserves"). Of the development wells drilled, more than 90 percent produced oil or gas.
The most promising areas for oil and gas development are situated on the outer continental and on the coastal plain of the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Only 3 percent of the 1.76 billion acres of outer continental shelf is leased for oil and gas development. According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, America's deep seas on the continental shelf contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The coastal plain of ANWR, which is neither wilderness nor refuge, is only 0.01 percent of the 19.6 million acres of ANWR. The coastal plain was set aside by Congress and President Carter in 1980 for future oil development.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the mean estimate of technically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR is 10.4 billion barrels of oil -- all of which is now economically recoverable.
These potentially recoverable oil and gas reserves are very large in comparison to the 4.5 billion barrels of oil the U.S. imports per year and to the 23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas the U.S. consumes per year.
Former 4th Congressional District Congresswoman Melissa Hart is in favor of allowing drilling where there are proven reserves. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) has cast no votes.
C.E. Pfeifer
Shadyside
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Source: Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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