Why doesn't Big Oil drill in the 70 million acres of land they already have?

Question

Why do they need ANWR so bad?

Answer 1

Not all that acerage is considered producible for oil and worst yet, they still need the permits which are almost impossible to get without volumes of red tape and public hearings.  ANWR is a proven reserve (oil already there).

Answer 2

its not like water that wherever you dig you wll find oil.  The oil co. need to dig where there is crude. Anwar happens to hold allot fo crude so they need to dig there. Trust me if there was Crude oil under your house they wouldve been digging there along time ago.

Answer 3

Because Big Oil is just greedy and they want all the land....