by the USGS and oil companies as undiscovered, recoverable oil and 

 natural gas resources. Undiscovered, recoverable resources are those 

 quantities of oil and gas which are reasonably expected to exist in 

 favorable geologic settings but which have not yet been identified by 

 drilling. When the existence of recoverable hydrocarbons are confirmed 

 by exploration, the resources are reclassified as "reserves." Since 

 June 1975, the U.S. Geological Survey has calculated Alaska OCS petroleum 

 resources by a series of probability estimates. The undiscovered recover- 

 able oil resources for offshore Alaska range from 3 to 31 billion barrels 

 with a mean of 15 billion barrels (there is a 95 percent chance that at_ 

 least 3 billion barrels will be recovered and a 5 percent chance that at_ 

 least 31 billion barrels will be recovered). The range for undiscovered 

 recoverable natural gas resources is from 8 to 80 trillion cubic feet 

 with a mean of 44 trillion cubic feet. 1 



Nine distinct petroleum basins are located on the vast Continental 

 Shelf surrounding the state (Figure 1). Numerous lease sales are 

 proposed for these basins, the number and timing of which will depend 

 upon future seismic information, hydrocarbon finds and socic political 

 considerations. Presently the Department of Interior has scheduled six 

 areas for at least one sale. Interior's proposed lease schedule issued 

 in November 1976) for these Alaskan OCS areas are as follows: 



1. Northern Gulf of Alaska - April 1976 



2. Lower Cook Inlet - February 1977 



3. Western Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak) - November 1977 



4. Beaufort Sea - February 1978 



5. Beaufort Sea - February 1979 



