From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri May 17 2002 - 14:41:20 MDT
<A HREF="http://energy.usgs.gov/npra.html">http://energy.usgs.gov/npra.html>
USGS Revises Estimates of Undiscovered Oil & Gas Resources in NPRA Editors:
Until now, the most recent assessment of NPRA was more than 20 years old and
The economic viability of the natural gas resources depends on the
The assessment area for ANWR included federal lands within the 1002 area,
The amount of technically recoverable oil estimated for NPRA is similar to
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5
: Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:10 MST
High-resolution graphics and tables available: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
scientists have completed a four-year re-assessment of the undiscovered oil
and gas resources of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA). The
re-assessment includes an economic analysis of the undiscovered oil in the
NPRA and shows that the federal part of NPRA contains significant volumes of
technically recoverable oil and gas resources spread over a vast area.
had reported the technically recoverable oil in the entire NPRA as between
0.3 and 5.4 billion barrels of oil (BBO), with a mean value of 2.1 BBO. No
economic analysis was done in 1980.The 2002 re-assessment shows that between
1.3 and 5.6 BBO are estimated to be economically recoverable, at market
prices of between $22 and $30 per barrel respectively. Estimates of
technically recoverable oil on federal lands are between 5.9 and 13.2 BBO,
with a mean value of 9.3 BBO. A large proportion of the undiscovered oil
resources are estimated to occur in the northern third of the NPRA in
moderate size accumulations. New estimates of technically recoverable
undiscovered natural gas resources on federal lands in the NPRA range between
39.1 and 83.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF), with a mean value of 59.7 TCF.
availability of a pipeline to transport the product to market in the lower 48
States. Presently, no natural gas pipeline exists. The bulk of the natural
gas resources are thought to occur in the central and southern NPRA.The new
NPRA assessment reflects a comprehensive examination of all public domain
data and considers new exploration and development strategies being applied
on the Alaska North Slope; it uses a methodology similar to that used in the
1998 USGS assessment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) 1002 area.
adjacent offshore State waters and Native lands, and did not study the entire
wildlife refuge. Using the USGS estimates for undiscovered technically
recoverable oil, a comparison between the federal study areas of NPRA and the
ANWR 1002 area shows:
NPRA federal area = 22.5 million acres, 5.9 - 13.2 BBO, mean value of 9.3 BBO
ANWR 1002 federal area = 1.5 million acres, 4.3 - 11.8 BBO, mean value of 7.7
BBOThe economic analysis of undiscovered resources is particularly important
in an area as large as NPRA, because some of the oil resources may be far
from existing infrastructure.
that estimated for the ANWR study area. The economic analysis considers
accumulation sizes, numbers of accumulations, and proximity to
infrastructure. The conclusion is that when market prices are below $35 per
barrel, a larger volume of technically recoverable oil would be economic in
the ANWR 1002 area. And if prices exceed $35 per barrel, NPRA and ANWR 1002
would have nearly equal volumes of economically recoverable oil