I've been looking for numbers about the amount of oil in ANWR and what we use. (no one has posted or cited anything else
ANWR.org (seems to be a pro-drilling site-they will estimate high) says that there are between 3.5B and 20B barrels of oil that is recoverable.
solcomhouse.com (seems to be a pro-environment site) says that we use 20M bbl/day here in the US, and we import half of that.
If the current Alaskan pipeline can supply 1M barrels per day(
pipeline company site, then we are kinda limited in how fast we can spill oil all over the Alaskan Permafrost on its way to my gas tank. If we need to build a new pipeline then these numbers are subject to change, but 1M BPD seems to be a good place to start.
On the face of it, it would seem that if we only counted the oil benefits, maxxed out production rates and and used conservative estimates that the oil in ANWR would only last us more than a few years. If we believe the less conservative estimates, ti would last for more than 10 or 20 years.
If anyone wants to argue these numbers (based on lousy internet searches) please go ahead. Up to this point- a lot of people have made general statements like "there isnt enough oil up there to make it worthwhile" which no one can argue for or against unless we have some numbers.
Bot cited refining capacity, which no one has provided numbers for.
If you (not you Bot specifically, but anyone) want to convince me that your viewpoint is correct (me playing Mr. Joe Average Forum member) then please, give me the numbers and let me make my own decision. If your position is supported by numbers (in my eyes, + my judgement of the sources) then your case will make itself.