How much money will drilling in Alaska save us?

Question

How much money will drilling in Alaska save us?

Answer 1

Practically none.    When the gvt. financed the transAlaska pipeline all oil was supposed to be sent to the lower 48.   Now much of the oil is going to Asia.   If we drill in AK, the oil companies will get rich and we will get nothing.   China and Japan will be happy though.   Is that worth getting rid of our last known large stockpile of oil?    Maybe we'll really need it when the middle east decides not to send us any more oil sometime.   If we sell it all to China now, we'll be really screwed then.

Answer 2

Not much.

It would take a great deal of labor and materials like steel to drill out the ANWR oil field (which is the Strategic Naval Petroleum Reserve, if I'm not mistaken).  After all of that, we would only get maybe 900,000 barrels a day out of it.  The USA uses about 9 million bbl/day of gasoline and about 2.7 million bbl of diesel, so just making our vehicles 10% more efficient or just driving more sanely would give us the same savings at far less cost.

Answer 3

Lots! Not to mention lessening our dependence on Arab and Venezuelan oil long enuff to develop alternate energy sources, if we're smart enuff to do it this time. And we do have the technology to do it in a reasonable enviro-friendly manner.

Answer 4

Not much. We have been drilling and pumping here in Alaska since 1977. We do not have enough oil to satisfy the needs and wants of USA.

Answer 5

The benefits to drilling will be numerous: 1. U.S. dependency on petroleum imports will decrease by the order of up to 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil in ANWR alone, not to mention other sites that are suitable for drilling in Alaska. 2. Many American Jobs will be created. 3. Tax revenues for the government. 4. Lower trade deficit.

Yes it will take a great deal of so called labor, but labor in the form of Good Paying Jobs. I have a different estimate of ANSW, at 3.1 million barrels / day not 900.000/day:

http://www.api.org/aboutoilgas/sectors/m...

Making our engines in vehicles 10% more efficient would be extremely costly and out price most consumers. There will probably be a weight to fuel ratio reduction instead. This will make cars lighter but much more susceptible to an increase in the mortality rates on U.S. highways.