Also carried in Anchorage Daily News:
The facts have not slowed the legend of Gull Island oil
http://www.adn.com/money/story/466869.html
Posted on 07/17/2008 11:41:25 AM PDT by thackney
Along with a surging interest in fuel-efficient automobiles and biking to work, the legend of Alaska’s Gull Island, a speck of land four miles or so offshore the North Slope in the middle of Prudhoe Bay, seems to have an uncanny ability to appear when the United States is facing soaring oil and gasoline prices.
Back in 1981 when crude oil prices hit unimaginable highs in excess of $30 per barrel, a letter from U.S. Rep. Bob Stump of Arizona popped into the mail bag of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in Anchorage, Alaska.
“I have been contacted by several constituents concerning the recent allegations of a massive oil find off the North Slope on Gull Island. Those allegations range from a business cover-up to a giant federal conspiracy to perpetuate our energy crisis,” Stump said. “I would appreciate any information that you can offer me that will aid with my correspondence with these constituents.”
Some of Stump’s constituents had presumably been reading a book called “The Energy Non-Crisis,” written by sometime Baptist missionary Lindsey Williams and published in 1980. Williams’ book included a description of the Gull Island field.
And, as oil prices started climbing in 2006, this time past $60 per barrel, Williams told a meeting of the Midwest Concerned Citizens group in Kansas City about how the fabulous Gull Island field could supply the United States with oil for 200 years. Gasoline prices could drop to just $1.50 per gallon if only the U.S. government and the oil companies were to open the spigots on the vast, undisclosed North Slope oil reserves, he said.
North Slope chaplain
Williams said that in the 1970s Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. had given him a position as chaplain for people working on the northern section of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the camp at Prudhoe Bay. He said that Alyeska became so pleased with his success in counseling workers that they gave him executive privileges on the North Slope, thus enabling him to sit in on board meetings held by company executives. Williams said that in 1976 he stumbled across the discovery of a vast oil field penetrated by an exploration well drilled on Gull Island by ARCO. He said that at the time of the discovery he had attended the management meeting in ARCO’s North Slope base camp, in which the “top eight oil company men of the world” had confirmed the find. But ARCO refused to make public the Gull Island discovery and the field has remained a closely guarded secret ever since, Williams said.
Williams outlined the field’s characteristics in a second edition of the “The Energy Non-Crisis.” The Gull Island field has a 1,200-foot thick pay zone and an area four times the size of the giant Prudhoe Bay field, he said. He said that three wells drilled from Gull Island had encountered the field, as did a well at East Dock. All wells drilled in an area extending 40 miles to the east of Gull Island had struck oil, thus demonstrating the huge areal extent of the field, he said.
And now, with oil prices moving through $130 per barrel, a flood of Internet chat has appeared on the subject of the supposed government and oil industry Gull Island secret — at the time of writing this article a Google search for “Gull Island” resulted in multiple pages of hits. Although some Web sites question Williams’ claims, many seem to view the claims as evidence of government manipulation of the price of oil and a cover-up of the real status of world oil reserves.
“The public needs to demand the opening of the Gull Island oil field,” appears as a call in some sites.
And Petroleum News has heard of congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., asking questions about the truth behind the Gull Island story.
One Internet site quotes an official in Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas expressing concern that Gull Island might explode because of excessive amounts of underground oil, thus causing an environmental disaster (hint: the url for the Web site begins with the word “sirsatire”).
Three wells
So what are the facts concerning oil drilling at Gull Island? There have been three wells drilled from the island. And, although these wells were tight at the time of the drilling, the data from the wells are now in the public record. Williams’ supposed Gull Island field discovery presumably relates to the Gull Island State No. 1 well, completed and suspended by ARCO in 1976.
In a response to Rep. Stump’s 1981 letter AOGCC Commissioner Harry Kugler set the record straight on the two Gull Island wells that had been drilled at that time (Gull Island State No. 3 wasn’t drilled until 1992). The Gull Island No. 1 well tested 1,144 barrels of oil per day in “the equivalent of the North Prudhoe Bay (Permo-Triassic) reservoir,” while the Gull Island No. 2 well tested 2,971 barrels of oil per day from the Lisburne, Kugler said.
“We do not believe the evidence from these two wells indicates a massive new oil find,” Kugler said. “Additional wells will have to be drilled and additional studies made before the economic feasibility of developing these known reservoirs is determined.”
Geologist Peter Barker didn’t sit in on senior oil company executive board meetings, but he did sit the Gull Island No. 1 well in 1976 (“sitting a well” is geologist speak for monitoring and interpreting the geologic evidence from a well while the well is being drilled). The objective of the Gull Island drilling was to test a deep structure on the north side of a geologic fault, to the north of the Prudhoe Bay field, Barker told Petroleum News July 7. The drilling proved disappointing, he said.
“There was an (oil and gas) trap there but there wasn’t an economic quantity of oil,” he said.
However, the drilling team did recover a beautiful core sample from the Ivishak formation, the main reservoir rock in the Prudhoe Bay field. Because Gull Island is closer to the inferred source of the sand that constitutes the Ivishak sandstone, the sandstone is coarser grained at Gull Island than in the Prudhoe Bay field, Barker said.
Barker said that the drilling results were extremely confidential at the time of drilling — the critical data display instrumentation was even covered, to prevent unauthorized viewing of data. “We ran it as a very tight hole,” he said. “… There was no information that got out of there.”
In fact, the electric well logs were taken off the North Slope in a very secure manner and were unlikely to have even been seen in ARCO’s North Slope camp, Barker said.
Long-time Alaska geologist David Hite also sat the well briefly and told Petroleum News that only ARCO personnel were allowed on the rig and rig floor. If necessary, one expert from the mud logging company was allowed to come in to troubleshoot the mud logging, Hite said. And Barker recalls the expert having to determine, without being allowed to see the instrumentation, why the gas detectors failed to signal gas as the well penetrated the Sag River formation, the uppermost reservoir rock at Prudhoe Bay. It turned out that mud from the well had formed a dam, blocking new mud from reaching the detectors, Barker said.
Ken Bird, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist and an expert on North Slope geology, provided Petroleum News with some geologic perspective on the Gull Island drilling.
“Three directional wells have been drilled from Gull Island in Prudhoe Bay to different subsurface targets, all of which tested different geologic ‘prospects’ in and beyond the northern boundary of the earlier discovered Prudhoe Bay oil and gas accumulation,” Bird said.
The Gull Island State No. 1 well drilled a faulted block of rock known as a horst and recovered oil from a very thin, 9-foot-thick interval at the base of the Shublik formation, Bird said. Gull Island State No. 2, completed in 1977, was deviated to the southeast to delineate the gas cap of the previously discovered Prudhoe Bay field and the underlying Lisburne oil pool, he said. The Gull Island State No. 3 well drilled in 1992 targeted a Cretaceous horizon in an area between the two older wells but proved to be a dry hole, Bird said.
Since 1980 at least four oil pools, the West Beach, Niakuk, Point McIntyre and North Prudhoe pools, as well as Prudhoe Bay satellites, have been delineated and developed in the area immediately around the Gull Island wells, Bird said. The four pools in the immediate Gull Island area are all currently in production: According to Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas 2007 annual report, Point McIntyre had a cumulative production of 395.6 million barrels of oil at the end of 2006, with 164 million barrels of remaining reserves. The other three pools are much smaller than Point McIntyre.
“Both the geologic evidence and the small area not yet developed into oil fields around the Gull Island wells preclude the possibility of a giant oil accumulation,” Bird said.
But the Gull Island legend seems to persist. And just to cap it all, used versions of Williams’ book “The Non-Energy Crisis” have appeared on Amazon.com as collector’s items — on July 7 three copies were listed with prices ranging from $1,299 to $1,499.
Maybe there’s money to be made from Gull Island after all.
Also carried in Anchorage Daily News:
The facts have not slowed the legend of Gull Island oil
http://www.adn.com/money/story/466869.html
"Domestic drilling is off the table." -- Sen. Harry Reid
/sarc
Show me the calculation.
Reids head should be on the table.
Gonna go buy a Prius I guess........:o)
And with no oil my Glock will start too look like this one !
http://theprepared.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90&Itemid=40
Any way to make oil out of demokkkrats?
http://video.google.com:80/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147
It’d just be rancid......:o)
Since this is not in ANWR it should be no problem. Alaska might be pleased if it is in State waters.
So, Gull Island oil is much ado about nothing?
Not if you know the subject matter he is talking about.
I've read some of his stuff online. It is full of errors.
They would be even more pleased if it was more than an urban legend.
Correct.
TNX FRiend.
The Gull Island story keeps going around, and then keeps falling down. Its mostly bogus...or at least waiting for a second source. Course, there are probably 100 folks trying to buy property on Gull Island currently....anticipating some kind of “rush”.
Trump was just interviewed on CNBC about his sale of a Palm Beach mansion. He claimed in an aside that oil tankers are sitting full “all over the world” and there is an “oversupply of oil all around the world” and the price of oil will come down much more. He said he was NOT just talking about the Iranian tankers with their heavy crude.
He runs with many of the richest folks around, so his grapevine should be good. Is he right or just blowing smoke?
Please, somebody tell me that wasn't intentional.
used versions of Williams’ book “The Non-Energy Crisis” have appeared on Amazon.com as collector’s items — on July 7 three copies were listed with prices ranging from $1,299 to $1,499.
Did I read that right? Yikes!
Actually, the title is The Energy Non-Crisis in America. Normally I don't sell my used books, but I may have to make an exception.
If Gull Island is so Worthless....
then Have the Oil companys deed it over to the Audbon society for a Thousand years......?
smoke,
There is not a large quantity of ultra and very large crude carriers sitting idle around the world.
Iran paid rather well to rent the few they did.
As a matter of fact there is a way...it's called solid waste to oil and it involves high heat and pressure. If the conventional modern methods don't work the public can apply the pressure and they can burn in hell.
From what the article says, I wouldn’t deem it worthless. It probably has a nice little pool that it can pump. But it is not going to sustain the US for 200 years.
Even if it did, the demand overseas would consume most of it.
Oil from Alaska goes to Japan. Not to the Continental US.
At $130 per barrel, that is $148k per day, or about a million dollars per week, or about $50 million per year. What am I missing here? Is this well for sale? I may be interested if the price is right.
“Oil from Alaska goes to Japan. Not to the Continental US.”
This was debunked a few days ago here on FR. Copies of the law, or regulations were posted.
A person had to be somewhat independent to work on the Pipeline in those days. That is, many were somewhat out of step with reality.
Sigh, how many times will that lie get repeated at FR?
When first built the pipeline oil could not be exported; that was part of the deal to get the pipeline approved through congress. The ban against exporting Alaskan North Slope was lifted in 1996 yet 100% of Alaskan North Slope oil is kept in America. This has been the case for all but 4 years of the nearly 3 decades of Alaskan oil production. Between 1996-1999 5.5% of North Slope oil was exported to Asian countries. These exports were overwhelmingly supported by the US Congress and by the Clinton Administration to offset an oil glut in California at the time. In June 2000 Alaskan North Slope oil again ceased to be exported, and 100% of Alaskan North Slope production has stayed in America.
You can look at the export history from this area since the ban was lifted.
Exports, US West Coast including Alaska and Hawaii
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrexp51a.htm
US Crude Oil Exports by Destination
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_expc_a_EPC0_EEX_mbblpd_a.htm
U.S. Crude Oil Exports to Japan
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrexja2a.htm
Here you can see data from the California Energy Commission. They track the amount of oil brought into California from Alaska.
CALIFORNIA CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2006publications/CEC-600-2006-006/CEC-600-2006-006.PDF
Here you can see from the Washington Government that 74% of the oil used in Washington State refineries comes from Alaska.
Washington State, Petroleum FAQs
http://qa.cted.wa.gov/portal/alias__CTED/lang__en/tabID__847/DesktopDefault.aspx
As for transportation costs, look at the distances:
It is 3,577 miles from Valdez, Alaska to Tokyo, Japan.
It is 1,274 miles from Valdez, Alaska to Anacortes, Washington. (largest Washington refineries)
It is 2,253 miles from Valdez, Alaska to El Segundo, California (major refinery near Los Angeles)
The largest importer of oil is also the closest customer for Alaskan Oil.
Thank you, and thanks for your posts and information as always. Carry on.
I am sorry. I missed that stuff. Thanks for posting.
Mea Culpa, mea culpa, mea maximum culpa....
You are assuming an initial flow rate is the same as a sustained flow rate. There is a lot more to determining field size and sustainability.
Yes a company called Changing World Technologies has a process to change anything with carbon in it into light sweet crude!
Ravenstar
Sadly, you are far from the only person to repeat that myth after hearing it elsewhere.
Which is why I keep the file handy to post...
Cheers
IMF and World Bank does us wonders. We shouldn’t even have a US Central Bank.
Not to mention, that many times such extravagant claims leave out accounting for population growth.
And the fact that it won't be just sold to the USA, but to the highest bidders worldwide.
And then when you figure the rate of worldwide usage increase, those 200 years--which aren't there to begin with--dwindle down to something like 5 months.
Here in Washington State alot of oil comes from Alaska.
This urban legend has been popping up here about once a week since the price of gasoline went over $1.
Gull Island is a considerable distance off shore and is difficult to get the oil produced, to land safely.
The water is very shallow, dredging for shipping (one month out of every year.) is highly impractical and unapproachable, and a pipe line is also out of the question for the time being.
I happen to be one of the drillers who drilled there in ‘81. We drilled two exploratory wells (using ice roads over the sea ice) for Sohio under strict security. The reason for that tight security, was due to the effect that it would have on the market. We also did the same thing on a project called Mukluk Island. (A dry hole which cost 1.7 Billion dollars to drill and broke Diamond Shamrock.)
This is not unusual for the oil companies to keep tight lipped, since any announcement of a discovery like this could start a panic in either direction. There is oil there, but the amount is very much in question and certainly is not to the degree mentioned. (A 200 year supply for the US.)
Great story. Oil & Gas Exploration is always fascinating and a sure fire adrenaline rush when the rig is running.
You forgot NAZI Pelosi.
YUP YUP.
PLUS another EQUAL to it found not long after.
Do you remember anything about that?
I don’t trust anything that Donald “Duck” Trump says.
BTTT
That’s sacrilegious doing that to ANY weapon! But I woulda had a good time doing that myself!
LOL.....agree yet as many times as I have cheated death and injury in my lifetime such as that IMO just invites disaster at some point.......No me !!
So there are 1,460,000,000,000 barrels of oil there? I doubt that.
You are right. As the article talks about, Gulf Island massive amount of oil is a myth.
Maybe they mean that Gulf Island can produce a certain amount of barrels a day for 200 years. Because if they are implying that Gulf Island can produce 20 million barrels a day for 200 years, they are insanely incorrect.
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