Related to today's column, some relevant facts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

The United States produces 10% of the world’s oil and consumes 24% -- the latter about 21 million barrels per day.

Regarding projections of crude production should our lame president get his way and tap into the Arctic (Alaskan) National Wildlife Refuge, the EIA says this:

"With respect to the world oil price impact, projected ANWR oil production constitutes between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030, based on the low and high resource cases, respectively.¹⁷ Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices.  . . .  Assuming that world oil markets continue to work as they do today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could neutralize any potential price impact of ANWR oil production by reducing its oil exports by an equal amount."

Regarding how much oil can be obtained in the ANWR, the EIA says: "There is little direct knowledge regarding the petroleum geology of the ANWR region.  The USGS oil resource estimates are based largely on the oil productivity of geologic formations that exist in the neighboring State lands and which continue into ANWR.  Consequently, there is considerable uncertainty regarding both the size and quality of the oil resources that exist in ANWR.  Thus, the potential ultimate oil recovery and potential yearly production are highly uncertain. "

Proven U.S. reserves of crude oil are the estimated quantities which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty can be recovered in future years from known reservoirs, assuming existing economic and operating conditions. Proved reserves make up the domestic production base and are the primary source of oil and gas used in the United States. Total proved reserves of crude oil in the United States, as of year-end 2006, are 20.97 billion barrels, a 3.6 percent decrease from those of 2005.

Thirty-one States have crude oil reserves. The top five are:

• Texas, with 4.9 billion barrels
• Alaska, with 3.9 billion barrels
• California, with 3.4 billion barrels
• Wyoming, with 706 million barrels
• New Mexico, with 696 million barrels.

Also, there are substantial crude oil reserves located in Federal Offshore fields: 3.7 billion barrels in the Gulf of Mexico and 441 million barrels in the Pacific. Offshore refers to that geographic area that lies seaward of the coastline. In general, the coastline is the line of ordinary low water along with that portion of the coast that is in direct contact with the open sea or the line making the seaward limit of inland water.

The estimate life of reserves in the United States is about 12 years.