CNN shares the latest US Geological Survey estimate of Alaska’s oil reserve. It’s a breathtaking 90 percent smaller than previously believed:
The group estimates about 896 million barrels of such oil are in the reserve, about 90 percent less than a 2002 estimate of 10.6 billion barrels.
The new estimate is mainly due to the incorporation of new data from recent exploration drilling revealing gas occurrence rather than oil in much of the area, the geological survey said.