Massive oil discovery in Alaska is biggest onshore find in 30 years

[n2doc]

Some 1.2 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in Alaska, marking the biggest onshore discovery in the U.S. in three decades.

The massive find of conventional oil on state land could bring relief to budget pains in Alaska brought on by slumping production in the state and the crash in oil prices.

The new discovery was made in just the past few days in Alaska's North Slope, which was previously viewed as an aging oil basin.

Spanish oil giant Repsol (REPYY) and its privately-held U.S. partner Armstrong Energy announced the find on Thursday, predicting production could begin as soon as 2021 and lead to as much as 120,000 barrels of output per day.

more
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/10/investing/alaska-oil-discovery-repsol-spain/index.html

Just what we need, more fossil fuel....

[VMA131Marine]

1. For comparison: the US uses 7 billion barrels of oil per year!

This is like 2 months of US consumption.

[Massacure]

9. IF we take Repsol's information on it's face though

120,000 barrels of oil a day is a little over 43 million barrels a year. From what I'm reading on Wikipedia, that would be a little under 2% of U.S. production, but enough to rank it as the sixth largest producing oil field in the United States.

[hatrack]

2. 5% of the original Prudhoe field

Nice chunk of change, not a game-changer.

[elehhhhna]

3. And damned hard to extract. Super expensive operating costs.

[FBaggins]

10. Why?

This is a conventional field in an area with existing relevant infrastructure.

[elehhhhna]

14. North slope, boo.

It's a b.

[packman]

4. Yawn - Big "So What?"

America is going towards renewables - true, oil has other uses. This oil will end up on the international market and go to countries still trying to kick that fossil fuel habit. Doubt very little will ever be used in the U.S.
Still trying to figure how a large oil find could really help Alaska? Didn't the collapse of the oil market and falling $ per barrel cause some of that budget pain? More oil = lower prices -a basic economic equation of supply and demand.

[defacto7]

5. I speculate that by 2021

there won't even be a viable market for it. This will turn out to be just another grease spot on the Alaskan lansdcape and more global CO2. They'll loose less money if they just pump it to the surface and set it ablaze. Better yet, leave it alone.
I don’t understand the RW obsession with an oil industry that is unsustainable and a coal industry that is already basically dead.

[2naSalit]

6. They'll need all that oil

that we won't be using to fuel their wars of choice.

[defacto7]

7. sure...

Oil price rises and we pay for it in personal taxes. What a scheme.

[2naSalit]

8. I speculate that

we pay for the war fuel and all that entails with our taxes, indeed. Just because we won't be using it, we will be paying for the processing and losing out as our biosphere is destroyed.

A scheme it is, maybe under investigation under RICO instead of treason, which could be a subsequent charge. IOW.

[FBaggins]

11. Don't you think oil demand should at least fall a little before you predict a 4 year lifespan?

Your speculation is optimistic in the extreme.

[defacto7]

12. Absolutely...

I was quoting from the article's start of production date.

[GliderGuider]

13. For one particular definition of "massive" anyway.

Wikipedia lists 130 oil fields containing over a billion barrels. This one would come in in 105th place.

I hope there isn't a market for that oil by 2021, for one reason or another. Of course, if Trump stays in power until 2020, there's a very good chance that the American economy with be so devastated by then that it won't be needed.