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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Douglas who wrote (41632)	4/5/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 95453

Anybody who counts on oil $18-30 perhaps should read this. biz.yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------Monday April 5, 3:07 pm Eastern Time U.S. sets May 5th oil lease sale in Alaksa reserve By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department said Monday it will announce on May 5 the winning bids submitted by companies to lease up to 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of land in Alaska for oil and natural gas drilling. The lease sale covers the northeast quadrant of the National Petroleum Reserve near Barrow, Alaska, that borders the Arctic Ocean. Bids will be due May 4 at the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management office in Anchorage, Alaska, and the winners will be announced the following day. The Interior Department estimates that if crude oil prices are in the $18 to $30 range, the northeast quadrant could profitably produce anywhere from 500 million barrels to 2.2 billion recoverable barrels of oil. The department has no estimate of the land's natural gas reserves. However, given that the current market price of oil is about $16 a barrel, it may be years before drilling in the reserve would be economically feasible. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gave the go-ahead last August to lease land in the northeast part of the reserve. Environmentalists opposed the plan, arguing wildlife and fragile land would be threatened by oil and gas leasing. About 580,000 acres (232,000 hectares) of the reserve - which encompasses nearly all of the shallow lakes north and east of Teshekpuk Lake - will be off limits to leasing to protect caribou, geese, wetlands and hunting grounds used by native people. The National Petroleum Reserve, set up in 1923 for the U.S. Navy, consists of 23 million acres (9.2 million-hectares). The area was transferred to the Interior Department in 1976, under the condition that no oil development in the reserve be allowed unless Congress approved. In 1980, Congress opened part of the reserve to oil company leasing. Lease sales were made to six firms, but those contracts have since expired. .