Oil: the monopolies turn to the Arctic

THE RECENT approval by the United States government of British Petroleum's plans to merge with the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, underlines the urgency with which the US imperialists are now seeking out new oil sources outside the Middle East.

The development of the Arab guerrilla movement and the crisis of the national bourgeois and feudal regimes now faces the giant oil companies with the spectre of expropriation in the not-too-distant future.

The BP-Standard Oil combine will account for 53 per cent of the total oil production of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait together!

The discovery of a rich oil field in northern Alaska and the successful voyage of the tanker S.S. Manhattan through the icy North West Passage now point the way to new supplies and the possibility of cheap distribution by opening up the Arctic waters as commercial sea routes.

EXPLORATION The discovery of the oil on Alaska's 'North Slope' has spurred increased oil exploration activity in neighbouring northern Canada and geological structures similar to the oil-bearing strata of Alaska are present elsewhere around the rim of the Arctic Ocean.

Walter Levy, a prominent US oil consultant, has stated:

"The centre of gravity of exploration for oil is shifting from the Middle East to the Arctic.' No one, at the moment anyway, is predicting that the Arctic will match the Middle East oil either in volume of total supplies or in cheapness of production costs.

It could, however, become of decisive importance if the stranglehold of the oil monopolies is broken in the Middle East.

As an indirect result of the Alaskan oil discovery, the Arctic might become a supplier

Northern Canada is known to contain valuable mineral deposits.

Until now, however, little attempt has been made to develop them commercially because of formidable transportation problems.

Getting the oil out of Alaska's 'North Slope' raises big problems, too, but the prospective profits : look attractive enough to make the petroleum companies willing to pour millions of dollars into the effort to solve them.

In particular, the development of an economically feasible route through the waterand-ice passages around the this class, not as an abstract north of the North American continent might make it possible to open copper, zinc or iron mines on Canada's northern islands.

The oil field is estimated to contain up to ten billion barrels of oil.

A barrel holds 42 gallons.

If oil is present in nearby areas-which • experienced oil men think is highly likely— the total oil reserve in northern Alaska may run as high as 40 billion barrels.

It is thought that this will be a bigger construction project than the building of the Panama Canal — perhaps the single biggest construction job ever undertaken.

The mainline will be 48 inches in diameter and 800 miles long and initially will be capable of carrying 500,000 barrels of oil a day.

Later, capacity could be stepped up to two million barrels a day.

The consortium of oil companies that is building this line also plans to build 400 miles of smaller-diameter lateral lines.

Inevitably in such an area there will be major construction snags.

The soil in northern Alaska's tundra region containing, as it does, a large quantity of ice crystals; has a disconcerting tendency to acquire a soupy consistency whenever warmed—as it would be by oil flowing through a pipeline.

A pipeline laid down in the conventional manner might just keep sinking. To get round this problem, part of the northern end of the line will probably be elevated on cross bars held up by piles driven into the earth.

Construction is scheduled to begin next spring and oil is expected to be flowing through the pipeline-and on to US West Coast ports in tankers— some time in 1972.

GAMBLE

The possibility that some 'North Slope' oil might go to US East Coast markets 'has led the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and its domestic subsidiary,. the Humble Oil Company, into an expensive gamble to determine if oil tankers can be specially designed to plough through the floating blocks and ridges of ice that have so far frustrated the development of a commercial trade route around the north of North America.

adapted for the job and fitted with a new ice-breaking bow, did manage to reach Port Barrow, Alaska, from the east, on September 21 this year, becoming the first commercial vehicle ever to make the trip.

Considerably more testing and evaluation is still needed, however, before it can be determined if the tanker route would be economically feasible.

If the answers are favourable, specially designed. icebreaking tankers much larger and more powerful than the Manhattan would be built solely for the North West Passage route.

DEFICIT

Before the voyage, oil company officials estimated that shipping by ice-breaking tankers in this way might be 60 cents a barrel cheaper than by the pipeline across Alaska and then to the US East Coast through the Panama Canal in tankers.

Other possible means of transporting the oil have been discussed, including transcontinental pipelines.

The United States west of the Rocky Mountains is the first logical market for Alaskan oil.

The region now consumes more petrol than it produces.

Not counting 'North Slope' oil, the deficit is expected to grow to between 800,000 and 1,200,000 barrels a day by 1975, and to 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 barrels day by 1980.

By that time, Alaska may be producing enough oil to cover this deficit.

For the United States as a whole, it is estimated that by 1980 there will be a need for 8,700,000 barrels a day more than it will produce in the 49 States other than Alaska.

This reveals the magnitude of the problem. The States will have to find nearly 7,000,000 barrels a day from outside sources by 1980 and the rapid development of the struggle of the Arab masses threatens to cut off the cheap oil on which they have relied for so long.