Just before President Joe Biden approved the Willow project, a couple of environmentalists and an oil industry representative debated the pros and cons of the project on KSKA Public Radio.The environmentalists complained that the production and combustion of all that oil would release about 239 million metric tons of climate pollution over 30 years. While true, here is the thing: According to a Greenpeace Canada publication, published May 17, 2021, “The amount of climate-polluting greenhouse gases emitted per barrel of Canada’s tar sands oil can be 30% higher than conventional oil.” (310 million metric tons for the same amount over time.)
Willow is low-sulfur light conventional oil. Oil remaining in the Canadian tar sands will never run out. Canadian tar sands oil will fill any market demand we don’t fill with lighter oil. Weaning ourselves off our fossil fuel addiction is going to take a while. Until then, we are going to burn oil from somewhere. Far better we burn more Willow light and less Canadian tar. The environmentalists know that part, but they didn’t bother to mention it.
Arguing in favor of Willow was Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil & Gas Association. Moriarty was equally pontificating. As she always does, she said how expensive it is to explore, drill and produce on Alaska’s North Slope. On one hand, it does take deep pockets to play in the North Slope big leagues. But here is the thing: What Moriarty knows, but fails to ever mention, is that giant pools of oil, like Willow and Prudhoe, pools where drillers stick a pipe in the middle of the pool and let it flow, are no longer found in the Lower 48. Fracking oil from rock is all that’s happening in the Lower 48. It easily requires 100 or more fracking wells to match the big prize of one good North Slope well.
The cost of producing a barrel of Prudhoe’s oil and delivering it to a West Coast refinery through a paid-for pipeline is approximately one-half of what it costs to frack a barrel of Texas crude from a Texas field, and deliver it to a Texas refinery. Bottom line: When found, the giant pools of oil on Alaska’s North Slope are enormously profitable. And because of people like Moriarty, Alaska and you have never received a fair share of those profits.
— Ray Metcalfe
Anchorage
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