L.A. oil giants eye Alaska wildlife refuge.

L.A. oil giants eye Alaska wildlife refuge 

If the U.S. Senate passes a certain bill this fall, at least one Southland company will come closer to having an opportunity to explore an untapped portion of Alaska's North Slope, analysts say.

But a spokesman for Atlantic Richfield Co., which is a major supplier of Alaskan crude, said the oil giant isn't depending on the yet-to-be-opened land as a resource and it doesn't necessarily need the extra crude.

"Arco's future in Alaska is not dependent on the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," said Al Greenstein, spokesman for downtown Los Angeles-based Arco. "We have a full plate already."

Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., introduced S1220, the National Energy Security Act of 1991, last June. The bill contains several sections delineating changes in the nation's energy policy, including one that entails opening 13,000 acres of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

Downtown Los Angeles-based Unocal Corp. has no "particular vested interest in ANWR if it is opened up today or next year," said Unocal spokeswoman Janet McClintock.

Nevertheless, officials from both Arco and downtown Los Angeles-based Unocal Corp. say they advocate opening up the virgin territory.

"We join the rest of the industry in support of the bill," said Unocal spokesman Jeff Callender.

The opening up of ANWR would present interesting exploration prospects for the oil industry. Such a move would also help the United States to become less dependent on foreign oil, McClintock said.

Arco is also in favor of opening ANWR because, although the oil giant already has a full slate of activity in Alaska, "shutting off the area is not in the best interests of the country," Greenstein said, adding that other oil companies could benefit from the opening up of ANWR.

Westwood-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. does not explore for or produce crude in Alaska.

The proposal to open the refuge is pending before the Senate, along with the rest of the National Energy Security Act. Yet, spokesmen from neither Arco nor Unocal expressed a great need for the land to be opened up.

Unocal owns 300,000 acres of Alaskan territory, most of which is offshore, all of which is unexplored and which Unocal has no plans to develop in the near future, Callender said. He added that he was unable to speculate on whether Unocal would bid to lease any new land in the Coastal Plain that might be opened up. The Coastal Plain is the coastal portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The passage of the wildlife refuge section of the National Energy Security Act would have "no immediate impact on Unocal," Callender said.

In event that the land is unlocked, though, an auction would pit oil companies in a bidding war to obtain leases to explore the land. Arco would have a good shot at getting leases, said Mark Gilamn, vice president of New York-based brokerage firm County Natwest.

Arco is familiar with the territory, he explained. The company employs experts on Alaskan geology and other subjects pertinent to exploring in the nation's 49th state.

But even if the land were opened up, there is no guarantee oil would ever be found, noted John Hilton, an analyst at the New York-based independent securities research firm Argus Research.

But Greenstein disagreed. "There is every indication that there is oil to be found there," he said.

The Sierra Club, an environmental group, is adamantly against opening the refuge to exploration. "The Sierra Club is totally opposed to drilling in ANWR because it would destroy one of America's last great wilderness areas and it's unnecessary," said Bob Hattoy, the group's regional director.

"Drilling should be the last thing we do, not the first," he added.

If the Coastal Plain is not opened up, some members of the oil industry say California's supply of crude would gradually be reduced. "Prudhoe Bay faces an inevitable decline," Greenstein said. Prudhoe Bay is the section of Alaska that now produces the most barrels of crude per day.

Nearly half of California's crude comes from Alaska's North Slope, and Prudhoe Bay produces three-fourths of the crude on the North Slope.