Sunday, October 11, 2009

Oil, Gas, Coal Everywhere Around the World

...Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey concluded earlier this year that there are massive amounts of oil and natural gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's coast. They estimated that there could be as much as 157 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic, or nearly twice as much oil as was previously known to exist in that part of the world. The natural gas discovery is also greater than all of the previously known reserves in the Arctic.

Last year the USGS had to increase its estimate of oil reserves in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana by 2,500%. The area is now estimated to hold more than 4 billion barrels of oil.

In Israel, experts underestimated the size of a huge natural gas discovery made in January of this year. The field is actually 16% larger than what had been estimated. Experts now claim Israel can supply itself with enough natural gas for two decades and could be an energy exporter.

In the United States, we have a 100-year supply of natural gas. Last year geologists discovered that gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale formation in Appalachia are actually 250 times larger than they estimated in 2002.

And recently, in the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced they had made a huge new discovery of oil, estimated to be as large as the biggest oil-producing spots in the Gulf, which means it could supply as much as 300,000 barrels of oil per day.

All told, there have been more than 200 new oil discoveries around the world this year alone. What these discoveries mean is our energy future does not have to be dictated by OPEC or energy taxes on American businesses. It is possible to have abundant and reliable sources of low-cost energy...READ AT IBD

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