Word: bbl
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...neighboring Prudhoe Bay, Congress set aside 1.5 million acres along the coast of the refuge--the so-called Area 1002--to be investigated for its petroleum potential. In the most recent study, in 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that there could be between 3 billion and 16 billion bbl. of oil in Area 1002. In 1989 the Senate Energy Committee was ready to authorize drilling when the Exxon Valdez disaster spilled almost 11 million gal. of oil, polluting more than 1,000 miles of Alaskan shoreline. The bill was shelved. Six years later, during the Newt Gingrich era, Republicans...
...Steam belches from plants eight stories high; flames shoot from natural-gas flares; and bulldozers the size of houses grind back and forth along 500 miles of roads that link the 170 drilling sites along the coast. Five thousand men--and a few women--work here, pumping 1.3 million bbl. a day down the trans-Alaska pipeline. The scale of the facilities swallows them up, and the oil plants seem almost deserted...
...principal allegation against them concerned a scheme from 1980 and 1981, in which their U.S. company made nearly $100 million by selling oil at several times the government-controlled price then in effect. The indictment claimed that Rich's firm bought petroleum for as little as $5 per bbl., then ran the crude through a series of complex transactions that obscured its origin before selling it back to a Rich subsidiary at a markup as high as 400%. Much of the profit went to a Rich company in Switzerland, which paid no U.S. taxes on the allegedly ill-gotten gains...
...Colder than usual temperatures are forecast for North America, and inventories of home heating oil and natural gas are at what the U.S. Energy Department calls "alarmingly low levels." That's the classic formula for a price spike that could quickly drive the cost of oil above $40 per bbl., a level that, if sustained for any significant length of time, could inflict considerable damage on the U.S. and global economies. O.K., that's the scare-your-pants-off scenario. At the moment, though, most experts are more optimistic. Despite the capacity strains, they don't think the oil pinch...
...scare stories to pass, though, cooperation from OPEC is essential. The only problem with this notion is that many countries in the 11-member organization feel short of cash, a hangover from the time, only two years ago, when oil was selling at close to $10 per bbl. That cost such major producer countries as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Venezuela tens of billions of dollars in revenue and has left OPEC wary of increasing supplies beyond the 3.7 million bbl. a day it has released onto the world market so far this year...