NPR-A holds 17B barrels recoverable oil

New BLM resource inventory for federal lands more than doubles recoverable crude estimates for northern Alaska petroleum reserve

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska could contain more than twice the recoverable oil and condensate reserves than previously estimated, according to an updated inventory of federal onshore lands. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued the inventory report as the third in a series of Congressional mandated studies to document federal oil and gas resources, as well as the existing limitations to developing those resources.

The Alaska part of the inventory includes federal oil and gas resources in northern Alaska, the Yukon Flats and southern Alaska. The northern Alaska region consists mainly of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The southern region includes the Alaska Peninsula, the Kenai Peninsula and Southeast Alaska.

In northern Alaska, the inventory put estimated technically recoverable oil and condensate at 17 billion barrels and gas at 79 trillion cubic feet. The gas estimate includes a 2007 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of coalbed methane.

The 2002 USGS assessment for NPR-A, sans coalbed methane, was an estimated 6.7 billion to 15.0 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 40.4 tcf to 85.3 tcf of natural gas.

The inventory also says that almost none of the federal land in northern Alaska is accessible under standard BLM lease terms, in part because of restrictions on when during the year exploration activities can occur. Approximately 70 percent of the land is completely inaccessible for leasing at present, either as a result of land withdrawals or as a result of land use planning decisions.

The inventory estimated 149 million barrels of recoverable oil and condensate and 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in federal lands in the Yukon Flats, but 99 percent of that land is currently inaccessible for oil and gas leasing.

In southern Alaska, 98 percent of the federal land is inaccessible for leasing. BLM estimates 270 million barrels of recoverable oil and condensate and 394 billion barrels of recoverable gas in this region. The preponderance of the oil is thought to exist on the Kenai Peninsula and the coast of the Gulf of Alaska. The gas resources are thought to be more widely distributed, although the Kenai Peninsula is the most prospective area.

BLM’s latest study says federal lands hold a total of 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

But the inventory has also found that 60 percent of the of the onshore federal land that has potential for oil and natural gas production is closed to oil and gas leasing, thus rendering 62 percent of the oil and 41 percent of the gas inaccessible for development.

“America has abundant energy resources,” said C. Stephen Allred, assistant secretary of the interior for land and minerals management. “However, for a variety of reasons, many of these resources are not available for development. At a time when energy prices have reached record levels and Americans are feeling the impact, we must find ways to develop those key energy resources that are available to us right here at home on our public lands.”

“Current technology allows us to develop energy resources without adversely impacting the environment or permanently diminishing other non-energy resources found on public lands,” said BLM director Jim Caswell.