Interesting.
(I went and read another article today about the USGS report....)
They put 'about 70%' of the reserves in Russia or Alaska, (of that 70% they claimed about 2/3 for Russia and around 1/3 for Alaska)... with most of the Alaskan expected reserves either on-shore or in fairly 'close in' continental shelf waters --- many of which (continental shelf waters) have already seen a bit of a land rush the past year or so, as the federal government opened them up for exploration and eventual production.
Naturally, because of the rough climate and current lack of infrastructure (available pipelines, etc.) to produce and transport any finds that may be made --- we can expect (both in Russia and in Alaskan waters) it will be a fairly LONG period of time before any of this reaches world markets (15... 20 years... perhaps).
However... *natural gas* from the Canadian Mackenzie Delta, and nearby on-shore Alaskan regions, may be making it's way to the lower 48 sooner then any of that, as TODAY the Alaskan Legislature approved the proposal of a Canadian pipeline company (North America's largest) to build a nat. gas pipeline to access those regions. (Perhaps 12 or 15 years or so, if we are lucky....)
One other take-away from the USGS report on potential Arctic hydrocarbon resources... although the reported "90 billion barrels" (note: that's 'oil equivalent barrels', not just oil... most of it is actually natural gas and associated gas liquids, not 'oil'):
If *every bit* of that "90 billion barrels" (oil equivalent) was ALREADY EXTRACTED and now sitting in storage tanks around the world (instead of the 50 or 60 years that it might realistically take to produce...), the USGS says that would amount to 'about 3 years of global use'.
And, they expect that that is also about 1/5 of the remaining yet-undiscovered petro resources around the entire globe.
The news media splash these big ('billions and billions' <g>) numbers around often enough in their headlines... but they don't usually do a very good job of explaining the important details to the public. |
