Development of oil resources in the Arctic

TECHNICAL

Solving the global energy emergency.

Around three quarters of the world’s oil and gas reserves are now off-limits to International oil companies and a resurgence of resource nationalism threatens to further curtail their access. This represents a huge capital and expertise wastage, which the Responsible Consortium proposes to help alleviate by responsibly developing the Arctic Ocean resources.

For the US, Arctic oil and gas would provide a welcome new supplier and a crucial guarantee of future energy security, at a time when US oil and gas fields are ageing and their production slowing, leaving America increasingly dependent on foreign supplies.

The central portion of the Arctic Ocean covering an area of approximately 14,000 square kilometers is outside the EEZ area controlled by the five surrounding nations and thus in international waters. It is within this region that the Consortium proposes to develop a potentially large multinational oil and gas industry.

The Responsible Consortium has created a unique development plan which benefits fairly all of the surrounded countries and effected parties, in effect making them responsible development partners. While at the same time providing a vehicle to deliver promptly much needed energy supplies to the world markets, thus reducing friction between countries and contributing to the greater peace of mankind.

For oil to be feasibly extracted from the Arctic, certain conditions must exist:

1. Oil prices must be high enough,

2. Technology to safely locate and exploit oil in harsh Arctic Ocean environments must be available.

3. World oil and gas demand must continue to grow.

All of these conditions have now been met. Recent technological developments prove that environmentally sustainable development of oil resources in the Arctic can be achieved. Technologies to exploit cold region offshore oil resources have increased rapidly over the last two decades in the North Sea and the Arctic. Arctic offshore gas recovery technology is now being developed to overcome challenges in similar environments particularly on the nearby giant Russian Baltic Shtokman gas field. One clear technical advantage of the Arctic cold is that lower ambient temperatures enable gas to be compressed and liquefied at a reduced cost.

Even the Deeper portions of the Arctic Commons Waters can soon be drilled: ONGC the Indian oil major is the second organization in the world which has been able to drill below 3,000 meters of sea water.

Gas to Methanol

New conversion technology promises to lower the cost of converting natural gas to methanol on the high seas via specially designed FPSO's. The possibility of placing large FPSO's on site to convert gas to methanol opens up the exciting possibility of bringing resources to market that much faster thus generating earlier revenues. New methanol technology promises to eliminate the need for multibillion dollar LNG compression Trains, special-built, expensive LNG tankers and hard-to-permit LNG regasification facilities. (See Methanol).

LNG
Approximately one-third of the world's known and not yet exploited reserves of natural gas are in Russia. The overwhelming majority of these reserves are in Artic and Sub-Arctic areas. If the USA only used its own domestically produced gas reserves, it would only last about 11 years before being all gone. Natural gas reserves are being used at a rate about two thirds the rate oil is being used. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. could face a gap in supply of natural gas of about five trillion cubic feet (Tcf) by 2020. Consequently, increased imports of natural gas will be required to meet future shortfalls.

Natural gas is important as a major source for electricity generation through the use of gas turbines and steam turbines. Particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in combined cycle mode. Environmentally, natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, and produces fewer greenhouse gases.

When Burned, natural gas produces the lowest level of greenhouse gases of all the hydrocarbon fuels. For example, power generation from natural gas typically emits half as much carbon dioxide as power generation from coal. It is partially for this reason that California generates approximately half of its electricity via natural gas.

Compressed natural gas (and LPG) is used as a clean alternative to other automobile fuels. As of 2003, the countries with the largest number of natural gas vehicles were Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Italy, and India. The energy efficiency of LPG is generally equal to that of gasoline engines.

United is the lead manager created to form a multinational joint venture together with a number of major oil companies - whose technology and managerial expertise will be vital to recovering the oil and gas from the harsh deep waters of the Arctic. Oil and Gas Companies able to offer access to regasification terminals and the US and Asian markets will be in a strong position.

USA Chukchi Sea Development

In the Arctic Waters directly South of United's Arctic Commons Claim area, the US is moving ahead with plans to develop the region's oil and gas potential. The US Arctic Ocean Oil and Gas plans show the commercial and environmental viability of the region is improving and point the way for responsible development of the Arctic's energy resources.

The outer continental shelf of the US, EEZ, Chukchi Sea likely holds more than 15 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 60 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, according to an MMS resource assessment.

Shell and ConocoPhillips just paid $2.5 billion to the US MMS for ten year leases over the US, EEZ, Chukchi Sea area. Thus the US Treasury has again drained the available pool of exploration capital from the global financial exploration pool before a single well is drilled. Had this money been spent in the Arctic Commons it could have drilled perhaps 25 exploration wells and would likely have find untold billions of barrels of oil.

By comparison the Arctic Oceans Commons could well hold 200-500 billion barrels OEL and there will be no up-front multi-billion dollar "Lease Auction Fees" wastage. All of our investors hard-won exploration capital will go into finding and developing oil and gas production.

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