US energy chief says key energy bill will pass ‘soon’

01 December 2004 18:24  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (CNI)--Outgoing US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham predicted here Wednesday that Congress soon will pass long-sought national energy policy legislation, including drilling access to the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) in Alaska.

 

Speaking to a meeting today of the National Petroleum Council (NPC), Abraham said: “With the new and large Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, we will soon see passage of the energy bill, and it will include ANWR.”

 

Abraham, who announced last month that he is resigning as energy secretary, spoke with NPC members about tight energy supplies and refining capacity in the US. He received a study and recommendations from the NPC concerning refining and inventory issues.

 

Abraham said that access to oil and natural gas reserves in ANWR is essential to US energy needs over the next decade. “If President Clinton had not vetoed access to ANWR in 1995,” he said, “today we would be receiving as much as one million barrels per day of oil from ANWR.”

 

“It is just common sense that we access those reserves,” Abraham said. “It is a solution to a very serious problem” of US energy needs, he added.

 

The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve comprises some 19m acres on the northeast coast of Alaska. The ANWR coastal plain, where most of the anticipated oil and gas reserves are believed to be concentrated, account for 1.5m acres within the ANWR total. The ANWR coastal plain is estimated to hold 17-30bn bbls of oil and some 34trn cubic feet of natural gas, according to US Geological Survey and Department of the Interior (DoI) appraisals.

 

In a meeting with reporters, Abraham also reiterated Bush administration opposition to anticipated plans by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to order a reduction in member countries’ production output in the first quarter next year. Opec is to meet 10 December in Cairo, Egypt to set new production levels.

 

“We are against [Opec] trying to set production levels in an attempt to control oil pricing,” Abraham said. “That practice is not consistent with the marketplace.”

 

Iran’s Opec governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, was quoted earlier this week as saying that Iran will press for a reduction in Opec countries’ oil production, arguing that oil markets are 2m bbls/day oversupplied.

 

Abraham announced 15 November that he will resign as energy secretary, effective with Senate confirmation of his successor. He told President George W Bush he wants to spend more time with his family.

 

The NPC is a privately-funded advisory council to the US Department of Energy (DoE). Its 175 members are appointed by the DoE.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly