The U.S. is going to push forward with Arctic oil and gas lease sales in
the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea, said U.S. Secretary of the
Interior Ken Salazar Tuesday.
"Opening up and developing our domestic resources is a
priority for us," Secretary Salazar told Dow Jones Newswires at the
sidelines of a conference about Arctic oil and gas drilling held in
Trondheim in central Norway.
Opening up more U.S. Arctic areas for drilling could further
increase the country's already-rising domestic oil and gas production,
reducing dependence on foreign imports. But exploitation of Arctic
resources has been opposed by environmentalists.
"A few years ago, when I was a U.S. Senator, we were speaking
at the time about [liquefied natural gas] terminals and importing LNG to
the U.S.," Mr. Salazar said. "Now the conversation I hear from the
industry is the potential for excess natural gas in the U.S. So things
have changed dramatically in five years."
The secretary said that the U.S. government will release its
2012-2017 Program in the coming days, providing detail and maps and
outlining the next steps for potential energy exploration in the U.S.
Arctic.
"There will be lease sales scheduled in both the Chukchi [Sea]
and the Beaufort [Sea]," Mr. Salazar said. "We are also doing it a very
targeted way, so the 30 mile buffer which now exists in both the
Chukchi and the Beaufort will continue."
An area in the Chukchi Sea which is of especially high value
to the people [there] won't be up for sale, he said, adding that the
lease sales will be held in 2016 and 2017.
"There is already a very large amount of acreage which has
been leased both in the Chukchi and the Beaufort, and in fact,
applications for the exploration permits that are being filed in the
Chukchi and the Beaufort Seas by both Shell
and ConocoPhilips and other companies are based on those leases which
we have recognized as valid," Mr. Salazar said.
U.S. crude oil production is expected to rise from 5.5 million
barrels per day in 2010, to 6.7 million barrels per day in 2020, and
the country is expected to become a net exporter of LNG in 2016 and an
overall net exporter of natural gas in 2021, according to the Annual
Energy Outlook for 2012 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"Our hope is that we do get to a point where the U.S. can be
an energy independent nation through fuel efficiency, through advanced
technology, battery powered electric vehicles, renewable energy, and
also recognizing oil and gas is going to be a part of our future as
well," said Secretary Salazar.