Alaska’s elected leaders say we should produce more oil on the North Slope to make up for the ban on importing Russian crude. But energy experts says it’s not so simple.
• First, consider the chemistry.
“A lot of people wonder why we are importing Russian crude or crude from anywhere really, given how much oil the U.S. produces now,” he said. “The answer is that our refining infrastructure in the U.S. was largely built, especially in the 90s and 2000s, with advanced technology designed to process heavier, dirtier crudes, like Russian crude, like crude oil from Venezuela, like crude oil from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada.
The fracking revolution came in 2010, producing tons of crude from shale. It’s light and sweet — the expensive kind, and the kind any refinery can process. Yes, Kellogg said, refineries set up for heavy crude could retool and make use of it. Alaska North Slope crude — ANS — is considered a medium, but it’s heavier than shale oil, so in theory it could be used to darken a blend. But ….A tanker from Valdez would have to go through the Panama Canal to bring crude to a refinery on the Gulf Coast. That’s not efficient.
The drop in Chinese demand last year “freed up barrels to go elsewhere. And the U.S. became somewhat the destination of last resort,” Smith said. “And so we saw more Russian crude coming into the U.S. West Coast … It was opportunistic purchases.” So this argument that we should produce more North Slope crude to offset the Russian barrels? Smith said he’s sorry to ruin a plot line, but it doesn’t ring true.It takes years to develop projects on the North Slope.
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