I came across this interesting graph yesterday.  (Sorry, I lost the reference where I found it.  If anyone knows, please let me know so that I can give proper credit.)  It shows the annual number of miles we drive, current as of April 2008.  It tells me two interesting things.

1.  We’ve doubled the number of miles we drive annually in the last 25 years, even though our population hasn’t doubled (actual population increase is on the order of 23%).

2.  We appear to be at the point where increasing gasoline prices are affecting the amount we drive.

The recent downturn in mileage could be reasonably attributed to discretionary or “surplus” driving.  It would be interesting to observe how the curve continues as gasoline prices increase and try to infer how much discretionary driving we actually do as a measure of our economic efficiencies.

UPDATE:  I found the graph at the Green Car Congress.  The original US DOT report is here.

President Bush has again reiterated his desire to drill for oil in ANWR (see “Energy for America’s Future“). Ignoring the inconvenient truth that opening the 1002 area to drilling will have no short-term impact on gasoline prices and minimal long-term impact on oil prices in general, I’m still struck by the questions that aren’t being asked:

- Is there a reasonable assumption that there is enough oil in the 1002 area to justify oil field development?

- Why the 1002 area, as opposed to other areas (i.e., Chukchi Sea, the Appalachian Basin)?

- In the grand scheme, would developing the 1002 area accomplish the goals of the drilling proponents? What exactly are their goals?

The Arctic has been touted by many groups as the next big undiscovered resource. But as the Arctic geology becomes more understood, it’s looking less like the next Saudi Arabia and more like a smaller gas province. From Petroleum News, by Gary Park:

The U.S. Geological Survey has made another contribution to the understanding of oil and natural gas resources within the Arctic Circle by releasing an interim assessment of the offshore region between western Greenland and Canada’s Baffin Island.

Protecting Arctic waters off Norway, Alaska

From Petroleum News (Volume 13, Number 22, June 01, 2008), an interesting comparison between environmental regulation of arctic oil drilling in Norway and Alaska.

Norway, United States share common goals but use different regulations to limit discharges from drilling in Arctic offshore

Alan Bailey
Petroleum News

The development of oil and gas fields in the Arctic offshore is not a new phenomenon. In the waters of Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, the Northstar and Endicott oil fields have been in production for several years. While, in the Norwegian Barents Sea, the Snøhvit gas field went into operation in 2007, for example.

But with heightened interest in oil and gas exploration on the outer continental shelf in the Arctic regions of both the United States and Norway, what steps are these countries taking to protect the delicate Arctic environment from potential pollution from Arctic drilling operations?

Norway has established a policy of achieving zero discharges from drilling activities, while Alaska’s Northstar field is already a zero discharge facility. The Endicott field only discharges treated domestic wastewater into the sea — produced water and other industrial waste are not discharged.

In response to my post, “A Presidential Math Test“, neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. McCain submitted either an answer sheet or an excuse. As promised, here are the answers…

Not where you think. This graph is from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, an annual report which is often more accurate than the federal Dept. of Energy.

It’s a little hard to follow the lines and arrows, so here’s the percentage breakdown for 2006, the latest data available. Note that the Middle East only accounts for about 17% of our oil imports. Makes you wonder why we have such a large military presence there. The fact that the Middle East is one of the last bastions of cheap oil probably has something to do with it.

Oil Imports, USA (crude & refined)
From	Barrels/day (x1,000)	Percentage
S. & Cent. America	2708	19.89%
Canada	2303	16.92%
Middle East	2276	16.72%
West Africa	1917	14.08%
Mexico	1700	12.49%
Europe	1120	8.23%
North Africa	742	5.45%
Former Soviet Union	370	2.72%
Unidentified	237	1.74%
Other Asia Pacific	205	1.51%
China	27	0.20%
Australasia	8	0.06%
	13613	100.00%

NPR’s “All Things Considered” had a short segment yesterday about how gas prices may curb extreme commuting.

From Eric Lidji in Petroleum News…

In the biggest step yet taken by an oil company in northern Alaska that doesn’t bear the name BP or ConocoPhillips, Pioneer Natural Resources has begun producing and selling oil from its offshore Oooguruk unit, the company announced on June 9.

The Dallas-based independent expects initial production of 2,000 to 3,000 barrels of oil per day from Oooguruk, developed from two pools, the shallower and smaller Kuparuk pool and the deeper and larger Nuiqsut pool.

Oooguruk sits in the waters of the Beaufort Sea northwest of the Kuparuk River unit, operated by ConocoPhillips. Through an agreement reached between the two companies in February, Oooguruk oil will be processed at the Kuparuk facilities.

Pioneer anticipates peak gross production of 15,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil per day in 2010 from approximately 40 development wells drilled over the next three years at Oooguruk. Over the 25 to 30 year life of the field, Pioneer expects the unit to produce as much as 90 million barrels of oil.
Pioneer owns a 70 percent working interest in Oooguruk. The Italian supermajor Eni Petroleum owns the remaining 30 percent.

As if all the feuding between Governor Palin’s AGIA/TransCanada gas pipeline and the ConocoPhillips/BP Denali gas pipeline wasn’t enough, Petroleum News reports that the American Bureau of Shipping has a joint initiative with the Russian Marine Register of Shipping to jointly develop ship classification rules for icebreaking LNG carriers.

Pioneer’s Oooguruk has started production. Trading Markets reports that:

The company said it began oil production at its Oooguruk field, breaking a 30-year monopoly by global companies BP PLC (NYSE: BP), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).

Pioneer said it expects to reach peak production of about 20,000 barrels of oil per day. It projects the field to produce 90 million barrels of oil over the next 25 to 30 years. Last year, Pioneer completed its offshore development on a manmade island the company built from scratch.

The company has a 70 percent stake in the field, while Italian energy company Eni holds 30 percent. Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources rose 37 cents to close at $75.65 Wednesday.

Forbes has also reported the information. I’ve blogged previously about Oooguruk (here and here). Pioneer has utilized some cutting edge technologies in the development of this field. Oooguruk is the first independent smaller operator to break into the North Slope, utilizing the North Slope Facility Sharing Agreement to break the monopoly of the majors (BP, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil).

The Montana Standard has a good background article on Oooguruk. The photo at the top of this post is from their article. The Alaska Journal of Commerce also has a background article.