Article

2008-07-17 Home Front Economy

US to open 3.9m acres in Alaska for drilling

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Posted by tu3031 2008-07-17 12:04|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 Question is, is this good yield area. or is it just more symbolic slack poor production area the Dems keep pushing?

Posted by OldSpook 2008-07-17 12:47|| 2008-07-17 12:47|| Front Page Top

#2 According to the New York Times, the field could contain as much as 3.7 billion barrels of oil.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17alaska.html

Posted by crosspatch 2008-07-17 13:06|| 2008-07-17 13:06|| Front Page Top

#3 Yes!

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-07-17 13:30|| 2008-07-17 13:30|| Front Page Top

#4 I wondered why Matt Drudge didn't have the economic doom and gloom stuff going today as he has most days recently. Then I went over to a financial page and found out why ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are tumbling for the third straight day and natural gas futures are accelerating a sell-off amid growing concerns about the weakening U.S. economy.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery is down $3.50 at $131.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in extremely volatile trading. Oil is now down about $14 in the last three days.

Natural gas prices are also plunging.

Natural gas is trading down 82.6 cents at $10.572 per 1,000 cubic feet. It has tumbled more than 20 percent since its peak before the Fourth of July.

and

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street surged Thursday as tumbling energy prices bolstered an already upbeat mood that followed stronger-than-expected quarterly reports from big names like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and United Technologies Corp. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 150 points as oil fell more than $3 and brought its three-day decline to more than $13 a barrel.

So his strategy of yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre didn't work. At least not this time.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-07-17 13:45|| 2008-07-17 13:45|| Front Page Top

#5 The Dow Industrials are up almost 200 points today as I type this to over 11,400.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-07-17 13:47|| 2008-07-17 13:47|| Front Page Top

#6 I think this is an area pretty far west of the existing pipeline. Thus there will be plenty of opportunities for greenies to stall this one by attacking the environmental impact of the pipeline, etc.

Posted by mhw">mhw 2008-07-17 13:54|| http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/]">[http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-17 13:54|| Front Page Top

#7 Depending on the type of oil bearing strata, the yield might be good or not so good. Depends on the geology specific to ANWR's costal plain. Have we even test drilled yet? I don't think we even know.
It was probably discovered with magnetic surveys or regional seismic reflection surveys, so the geology may be unknown yet.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-07-17 14:22|| 2008-07-17 14:22|| Front Page Top

#8 re #4. Crosspatch. Oh my god, the economy is tanking so the price of oil is falling! This has nothing to do with the announcements made by Bush and the administration in the last couple of days. /s off (grin)

Posted by tipover 2008-07-17 14:34|| 2008-07-17 14:34|| Front Page Top

#9 Americans are turning down the economy by taking heed and the gas is starting to seriously back up at the refineries and storage facilities. Can't sell all they got now. Look to lucrative extended deals for major purchasers of bulk first so that the oil companies can lock in prices now before it drops too far. Who's going to blink first on falling prices.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-07-17 14:44|| 2008-07-17 14:44|| Front Page Top

#10 Down 4.22 at 130.38 as of two minutes ago. Tehran better wake up the Photoshop guys for another launch or have Mahmoud drop another one of his pearls of apocalyptic wisdom.

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-17 14:48|| 2008-07-17 14:48|| Front Page Top

#11 Now under 130.

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-17 15:31|| 2008-07-17 15:31|| Front Page Top

#12 Ole Bill and his guys deliberately understated the potential oil reserves in these areas of Alaska by a factor of 10.

On a separate note, he deliberately had the Dept of Commerce understate the potential reserves in ANWR by a factor of ONE HUNDRED as a means of justifying the set aside..as in "its only a fifty year supply"...actually its enough oil for us to tell the middle east to shove it for a long time...enough time to find those precious alternative energy sources those darling little simpletons in the environmental movement dream of.

I believe that the announcement of opening ANWR for drilling would send oil futures through the floor...Hmmmm, I wonder if the dems will call for a bailout of the commodity brokers that have jacked the oil prices?

Posted by James Carville 2008-07-17 15:32|| 2008-07-17 15:32|| Front Page Top

#13 Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $5.31 to settle at $129.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have fallen about $15 in the past three days.

Natural gas futures for August delivery fell as much as 8.2 percent in the day, the biggest one-day drop in nearly a year.

Other energy futures also fell. Heating oil fell 6.62 cents to $3.7748 a gallon, while gasoline futures gained slipped fell 9.92 cents to $3.1802.

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-17 16:19|| 2008-07-17 16:19|| Front Page Top

#14 Higher prices mean less demand. The bastards you see on the idiot box seem to think that gasoline is an inelastic demand. WRONG! Some of the boys at The Big Picture have been claiming for some time that commodities were the last big bubble to be popped. I thought they were right at the time and I think the proof of that belief is now beginning to make itself apparent. My guess is that in five years the price of gas will be back under $2.

Posted by Jomosing Bluetooth8431 2008-07-17 16:57|| 2008-07-17 16:57|| Front Page Top

#15 I wouldn't mind seeing a great many futures and hedge fund jackals lose their shirts over this. They have been dicking around with the price of oil at the cost of every other sector of the American economy, all the while running away with obscene profits. Should we feel sorry for them when they start hanging themselves in the men's room at the exchange cause they cant meet their margin calls?
I think not. Pass the popcorn.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-07-17 17:17|| 2008-07-17 17:17|| Front Page Top

#16 The new area has as much as ANWR, but its over 10x as much territory - the density sucks.

Also its an area where the Enviros and their lawyers have tied up the needed pipeline for years in the courts.

Drill ANWR and drill it NOW!

Posted by OldSpook 2008-07-17 19:39|| 2008-07-17 19:39|| Front Page Top

#17 Should we feel sorry for them when they start hanging themselves in the men's room at the exchange cause they cant meet their margin calls?

I'll hand out the rope.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-07-17 19:46|| 2008-07-17 19:46|| Front Page Top

#18 I say eliminate margin in the oil futures market. Get the speculators to have as much skin in the game as the consumers do.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-07-17 19:56|| 2008-07-17 19:56|| Front Page Top

#19 According to the Institute for Energy Research (h/t Powerline):

Section 2. Lease Sales in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska

Ø This section requires that lease sales be conducted once a year. This is something that is currently allowed, but not done because NPRAs Indiana-sized area has no infrastructure. In addition, a history of dilatory lawsuits has made it an area of limited interest to energy producers. This section also seeks to expedite permits in the NPR-A, a positive step. However, it does nothing to tackle the biggest problem with developing new energy: dilatory protests and lawsuits. Any genuine effort must involve putting a stop to the legal blocking and tackling of groups opposed to American energy production. Incidentally, Congress should address this issue nationwide.

In other words, it's already open.

They don't sell leases because there is no infrastructure; the Alaska pipeline serves ANWAR better.

Powerline:
NPR-A is already open to oil exploration and development. That isn't happening, though, because the Corps of Engineers hasn't been able to get a permit to build a pipeline, and the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations have tied up proposed projects in litigation. Moreover, NPR-A is a less desirable area for exploitation than ANWR. It has about the same amount of recoverable oil, but spread out over ten times the area as ANWR's 1002. Both environmentally and economically, ANWR is a far superior place to recover oil, and it is close to the existing Alaska Pipeline.

Posted by KBK 2008-07-17 21:55|| 2008-07-17 21:55|| Front Page Top

#20 What needs to be done is declare open season on 80% of all "environmentalists" who have nothing to do with a particular area. If you don't live there, shut your yap and move on. We have too many people in this nation that engage in lawfare with no consequences for themselves. Hanging a bunch of them may get the message across to the rest that we're tired of their "back to nature" BS.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-07-17 22:11|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-17 22:11|| Front Page Top

#21 Too little, too late scumbags.

Posted by newc">newc 2008-07-17 22:15|| 2008-07-17 22:15|| Front Page Top

#22 Adopting a complete opposition to drilling anywhere is not going to work.

Posted by Albemarle Uniper3460 2008-07-17 23:08|| 2008-07-17 23:08|| Front Page Top

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