Governor Sean Parnell and Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan met with national reporters to share the state’s plan to offer additional lands and offshore waters for oil and gas exploration.
The briefing with national media is part of the Parnell administration’s wide-ranging efforts to generate national awareness and support for the state’s goal to boost the flow of oil through the Trans Alaska Pipeline to one million barrels of oil within a decade.
“By reaching this goal we will strengthen Alaska’s contribution to U.S. energy security and we will create tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in payroll,” Parnell said after the briefing.
Calling President Obama’s decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve “bad policy,” Parnell said “the real Strategic Petroleum Reserve is Alaska, which has the potential to provide more than 30 billion barrels of oil over three decades.” He said developing Alaska’s vast hydrocarbon resources will supply the nation with billions of barrels of domestic crude, provide tens of thousands of high paying jobs and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for the federal government.
Parnell also described his efforts in recent months to reach out to Obama, members of Congress, and other governors to encourage broad cooperation on boosting domestic energy production.
Commissioner Sullivan laid out the state’s plan to boost development on its land and in state waters. He also discussed the stringent environmental protection measures in place that protect the sensitive tundra and the North Slope’s wildlife populations.
The Central North Slope undeveloped acreage still holds three to six billion barrels of oil and 24 to 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to federal estimates of the region’s undiscovered, technically-recoverable resources. The undiscovered resources on state land include dozens of pools of conventional oil that range in size from 50 to 150 million barrels, tens of billions of barrels of heavy and viscous oil, and potentially enormous shale oil deposits.
These estimates do not include the more than five billion barrels of conventional oil reserves that lie under producing fields or fields that are close to being placed into production.
Importantly, some of the known oil and gas plays on state land straddle highly prospective federal lands, including the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). By drilling on state land and waters adjacent to NPR-A and ANWR, developers may end up drawing untapped oil that lies beneath these federal lands.
“I applaud Governor Parnell and Commissioner Sullivan for stepping up to the plate to help deliver American energy that we so clearly need,” said Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. “Alaska is acting to address our supply problems because the federal government has not. I hope that policymakers in Washington will take notice of the example set by Alaska’s leaders by allowing more access to our oil and gas resources which will create jobs and improve our energy security.”
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