INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON OIL DEPLETION Uppsala, Sweden, May 23-25, 2002 Organised by Uppsala University and ASPO,the Association for the Study of Peak Oil |
An Overview of US Hydrocarbon Supply
and the Possible Impact of New Alaskan Reserves by Jeremy Gilbert (Formerly Chief Petroleum Engineer, BP) The paper will summarize the historical record of hydrocarbon
discovery in the United States and emphasize that for conventional oil
both discovery and production rates have peaked. Comments will be
made on the situation relating to gas discovery and production. The
significance of the discovery of the major Alaskan fields at Prudhoe Bay
and Kuparuk will be discussed and the history of Prudhoe Bay in particular
will be used to assess the potential for new technology to bring about
‘reserves growth’ in existing fields. The potential of the essentially
unexplored Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to counteract in the
declines in production from the ‘Lower’48 states will be assessed.
It will be concluded that the US has no possibility of being self-sufficient
in oil supply without radical cuts being made in oil demand.
... and with more details: New Technology and Opening Up ANWR - The Keys to Resolving the US Oil Supply-Demand Imbalance?" by Jeremy Gilbert, in Energy Exploration & Exploitation 21, pp. 71-78. [2003 February]
"Is there a solution to this coming crisis, short of US annexation of non US oil production? Perhaps, but it does not lie in ANWR nor in the finding and application of new technology to conventional oil sources." |