USGS Drops a Bomb on Alaska's Oil Future
The USGS report estimated that the NPR contains approximately 896 million
barrels of oil — 90% less than its previous estimate.
That's a huge blow to future reserves.
The NPRA was previously thought to hold approximately 10.6 billion barrels of oil.
To add even more insult to injury, the USGS also revised their gas estimates, which are now eight trillion cubic feet less than they were before.
And don't get your hopes up for tapping that gas, because there's no infrastructure in place.
In other words, there's no pipeline to bring the gas to market.
Not surprisingly, Alaska officials were quick to save face, saying the USGS estimate did not "truly represent" the NPRA's full potential.
Even if Alaska won't accept the USGS's data, the revision is enough to give second thoughts to drillers.
Sadly, it's the same story across the entire United States...
In fact the only reason Alaska is still the second largest oil-producing state is because California (holding third place) has been having comparable trouble with declining production. California's statistics show they've only managed two year-over-year production increases since 1985.
