The information campaign in support of expanded exploration and development on US federal lands is gathering momentum.
US federal lands hold the potential to contain large oil and gas deposits, government and industry witnesses told the House Committee on Resources late last month. The US Department of the Interior and the American Association of Petrol- eum Geologists made the statements at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals Resources.
Meantime, much of the US government land technically available for exploration in the West is actually off-limits to producers, American Petroleum Institute told a key House panel last week.
Resource estimates
The US Geological Survey said that, assuming 1995-era technology, there are about 112 billion bbl of technically recoverable onshore and offshore oil in the US and a remaining gas resource base of 1,074 tcf. Proven US oil reserves are currently estimated at 21 billion bbl.
USGS's assessment is being updated, and early results are due next year.
Another Interior agency, the Minerals Management Service, said there is great untapped oil and gas potential on federal offshore lands off limits to drilling be- cause of presidential and congressional moratoriums.
In its latest assessment, released 2 months ago, MMS estimated the Outer Continental Shelf mean resource base is 75 billion bbl of oil and 362 tcf of gas.
In comparison with a 1995 study, MMS said, the mean estimates increased by 29 billion bbl and 94 tcf. The agency attributed that to recent deepwater discoveries in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. Within the latest totals, MMS also determined undiscovered conventionally recoverable resources foregone by the 1998 moratorium issued by former President Bill Clinton. The agency said 16 billion bbl of oil and 62 tcf of gas are off limits.
Industry campaign
Drilling proponents on Capitol Hill argue that some of the currently off-limits federal offshore areas should be made available to boost domestic supply.
According to a 1998 National Petroleum Council study funded by industry and the federal government, industry must double the amount of wells currently being drilled to maintain current output of 5.8 million b/d.
In an effort to reduce imported oil, President George W. Bush is said to be considering policies that would lift drilling bans on some of the federal offshore areas. Also on the table are onshore areas now restricted from drilling (OGJ Online, Mar. 15, 2001).
To that end, Republican lawmakers asked USGS to estimate how much oil and gas may be on public lands restricted by the Clinton administration in 1996-2001. Of the 21 areas designated or expanded by Clinton, the USGS said five had significant hydrocarbon potential: the California Coastal National Monument, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado, Carrizo Plain National Monument in California, the Hanaford Reach National Monument in Washington state, and the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana.
API stance
"Industry critics gloss over the reality that there are major obstacles to developing trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that lie beneath nearly half of all federal lands in western states," API Pres. Red Cavaney said in a Mar. 27 letter to Rep. Barbara Cubin, (R-Wyo.), chair of a House Committee on Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources.
Cavaney maintained that in many instances, lessees cannot get the permits needed to develop leases. In others, development is rendered uneconomic or delayed by unnecessarily restrictive operating stipulations or by inadequate agency resources, he said.
When all restricted and off-limits lands are combined, Cavaney wrote, 38.7% of Bureau of Land Management lands is restricted or off-limits, affecting 62% of the natural gas under those lands. The National Petroleum Council has estimated that 137 tcf of natural gas lie beneath federal land in the Rockies that is either off-limits or heavily restricted-48% of the natural gas resources on federal lands in the region, he added.
