Question: What do you think of Mr. Lindsey Williams’ view that we are not in an
energy crisis?
Answer: After reviewing the vidclips available on Youtube, I’ve come to the
following conclusions:
- Mr. Williams (who is now deceased) lacked
the appropriate credentials to be considered an “expert” in the field. I
also lack those credentials and that is why I often refer to the
scientific work of those who have done their time both academically and in
the field. While I might go to Mr. Williams (who was a Baptist missionary)
for a consultation on the nature of the Nephilim in Genesis 6, I don’t
think I would be comfortable betting my family’s future on his
understanding of geophysics. What is interesting to me is that you can
find a lot of sites that support Mr. Williams, saying “He sounds like an
honest man.” “Sounds like an honest man”? I would rather demonstrable
facts over gut interpretations thank you very much!
- Mr. Williams’ arguments are hearsay in
nature. His supporting witnesses are all anonymous.
- Mr. Williams
claims: "The governor of Alaska
stated on the Bill Maher TV show Real Time on March the 18th, 2005 there
is potentially enough crude oil on the north slope of Alaska
to supply the entire United
States of America for 200 years. He is
correct"
The transcripts from the Bill Maher don't show Gov. Murkowski saying
anything like that. Gov. Murkowski said: "But this is a lot of
oil, potentially, up there (ANWR). Alaska has been producing about 25% of
the total crude oil produced in the United States for the last almost 30
years. If there's an abundance of oil in Anwar, it could be as much as
what we have imported from Saudi Arabia in 25 years. So this could be a
very big thing.
- He claimed PEAK Oil is a
misnomer and cited massive oil discoveries in super deep Russian wells
called "Kola SG3". The problem is that he mistakenly used
the word "Kola SG3" as a term referring to a group of deep hole wells. The Kola SG3 is not a group of wells. It is
the number designation referring to boreholes branching from a central hole,
the Kola being the central hole and SG3 being the deepest of its branches.
- He claimed the
"Kola" wells were "just" drilled. Since his quote from
the Governor of Alaska was dated 3/18/2005, we know the video was made
after that date. The Kola borehole began in 1970 and the SG3 reached its
final depth in 1989. Does a time span of 9 to 30 years justify the term
"just drilled"?
- He called the Kola super
deep boreholes, "wells." They are not wells as they were
not meant to, nor have they ever, produced anything. They were
drilled strictly for scientific research. The most unusual thing from the
project was the discovery of very deep water and hydrogen gas. No oil was
ever produced.
- Additionally, Mr. Williams
claimed that there was a grand conspiracy to keep these “wells” secret
while the fact of the matter is that the boreholes have been open to the
scientific community for a long time and aren't a secret...the Soviets
were very proud of them.
- Mr. Williams’ math is atrocious. For
instance, he claims there is enough natural gas
on the North Slope of Alaska to supply the entire USA with
natural gas for the next 200 years. He also implies the reason we
don't currently have this natural gas is because 1 billion cubic feet of
gas is pumped back into Prudhoe Bay Alaska every day. The reserves of
natural gas in Alaska are stated as 193.831 trillion cubic feet. The USA
consumes 82.626 billion cubic feet per day. So, even if we add the billion
cubic feet of natural gas Mr. Williams claims is being pumped into the ground
each day... Alaska still doesn't have enough natural gas to supply the
entire USA for 200 years.
- His understanding of the
oil industry practices is minimal at best. He claims that all the natural
gas is being pumped back into the ground in order to keep it from the
American people. Apparently, he doesn’t understand that the underground
spaces are routinely used as temporary storage until ships are available
and the ice is clear enough to pump the gas into the ships and get out.
Further, it is very common to reinject the same gas again and again as a
way of enhancing the extraction of oil. Without the pressure from the gas,
as much as 50% of the oil might not be recoverable. The gas that is
reinjected is then pumped back out with the oil it lifts and is reinjected
once again.
- At about minute 15 into the
video, Mr. Williams tells a story about an island 2-2.5 miles off the
coast, Gull Island, and the discovery of the largest oil pool in North
America. He claims an employee of Arco asked him to come watch a
well test because; "I'd like you to see what we think we have
struck today." They sat on the West Dock of Prudhoe Bay
when suddenly there was a big plume of black smoke. According to him, back
then, they were still allowed to "burn it off." After the test, he
and the Arco employee rushed back "to see what was coming in from
out at the well site". So
what are the problems with these statements?
- You can't watch a well
test from 2 miles away. The test is basically a few men inside a
trailer looking at read-outs and possibly test tubes.
- Oil doesn't burn easily
and you don't "burn it off" when it is released because it
flows. When drilling a well, it is common to hit pockets of gas and for
the gas to flow up the hole. Again, the BOP is designed to handle this gas
and then divert it to a vent line. Basically, a vent line is a long pipe
that runs away from the drilling rig where it vents any gas. The
venting gas is ignited. i.e. the gas is "burned
off."
- As for his comment
regarding “back then they were still allowed them to "burn it
off”? They are still allowed to burn it off… after all, it is much safer to burn it off than let gas
float around ready to ignite.
- Even in 1976, they had
Blow Out Preventors (BOP). Either Mr.
Williams was the victim of a practical joke or he was a terrible liar.
Each of us will have to judge which is true. Had there been a "plume
of black smoke" it would have been because the BOP had failed, and
they would have been rushing back to report an emergency, not to look at
test results.
- Mr. Williams claimed that his knowledge
came from sitting in on executive board meetings where he was given
insight into the fabulous discoveries and yet sworn to secrecy. One of
these “secrets” was Gull Island, a mine that (according to Mr. Williams)
was simply capped and not used. However, the most productive oil
field in the world is the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia. The producing
structure of the Ghawar field is 150 miles long and about 25 miles wide.
Therefore, if the Gull Island field is real, it would logically be
approximately similar in size. It is not. It is a tiny speck of land about
four miles offshore the North Slope. Just Google Earth the thing.
- He claimed that wells
approximately a mile apart were discovered and capped in order to maintain
their secrecy.
- However, wells must be
spaced apart from each other so they don't deplete the oil from other
wells and not adversely affect the pressure needed to produce the
oil. Spacing requirements can be as big as 640 acres, or as small as
20 acres. An acre is 210' x 210'. Under the 20 acre spacing
requirements, the next well would need to be at least 4,200 feet away.
(5,280' = 1 mile) Therefore, to keep from pumping any oil from the
supposed Gull
Island field, there
couldn't be any wells within 4/5th of a mile.
- When examining geological
surveys and the Energy department’s maps of wells, we quickly discover
that there are not gaps in the locations of mines surrounding Gull Island. Everything has been
discovered, drilled and used to the maximum of its potential in order to
fulfill the oil companies’ bottomless thirst for the almighty dollar.
Greed trumps secrecy in this case.
Conclusion: Back in 1981, when crude oil prices hit the then unimaginable
highs in excess of $30 per barrel, a letter from U.S. Rep. Bob Stump of Arizona popped into the mail bag of the Alaska Oil and
Gas Conservation Commission in Anchorage,
Alaska. “I have been contacted by
several constituents concerning the recent allegations of a massive oil find
off the North Slope on Gull Island. Those allegations range from a business
cover-up to a giant federal conspiracy to perpetuate our energy crisis,” Stump
said. “I would appreciate any information that you can offer me that will aid
with my correspondence with these constituents.”
In a response to the letter,
Commissioner Harry Kugler set the record straight on the two Gull Island
wells that had been drilled at that time (Gull Island State No. 3 wasn’t
drilled until 1992). The Gull Island No. 1 well tested 1,144 barrels of oil per
day in “the equivalent of the North Prudhoe Bay
(Permo-Triassic) reservoir,” while the Gull Island No. 2 well tested 2,971
barrels of oil per day from the Lisburne according to Kugler.
“We do not believe the evidence
from these two wells indicates a massive new oil find,” Kugler said.
“Additional wells will have to be drilled and additional studies made before
the economic feasibility of developing these known reservoirs is determined.”
Geologist Peter Barker, who was
involved with the Gull Island No. 1 well in 1976, told Petroleum News on July 7
of that year that the drilling proved disappointing. “There was an (oil and
gas) trap there, but there wasn’t an economic quantity of oil,” he said.
Barker went on to describe the
extremely tight security around the wells, saying that the equipment dials and
monitors were always covered so that no one could see how much oil was being
produced. After all, ARCO’s competitors would have loved to come into
possession of that knowledge. Hundreds of millions of dollars were riding on
those secrets. If bad news got out, their stocks would go down. If good news
got out, the price of oil could go down. His conclusion was, ““We ran it as a
very tight hole… There was no information that got out of there. In fact, the
electric well logs were taken off the North Slope in a very secure manner and
were unlikely to have even been seen in ARCO’s North Slope camp.” So what does
that make of Mr. William’s claims of access to dials, monitors, measuring
gauges, wells, and exploration teams as a camp chaplain?
Mr. Ken Bird, a U.S. Geological
Survey geologist and an expert on North Slope geology, told Petroleum News, “Both
the geologic evidence and the small area not yet developed into oil fields
around the Gull Island wells preclude the possibility of a giant oil
accumulation.”
Therefore, I believe that Mr. William’s Gull Island
theory is a deeply flawed myth that has gained the status of an urban legend.
For an excellent and in-depth examination and systematic
“debunking” of Mr. William’s claims go to:
http://thegreattinkerer.blogspot.com/2008/07/debunking-peak-oil-myths-1-gull-island.html