President Donald Trump is opening up the Arctic Circle for drilling, and plans to raise $1.8 billion over the next decade by leasing oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In this clip from Industry Focus: Energy, Motley Fool analysts Sean O'Reilly and Taylor Muckerman talk about what this means for the oil industry and some concerns that drillers might have about tapping into Arctic oil.
A full transcript follows the video.
This video was recorded on May 25, 2017.
Sean O'Reilly: Trump's budget. The energy policy.
Taylor Muckerman: Yeah, we're not going to dive into the whole thing.
O'Reilly: Kind of making good on his promise to drill, baby, drill.
Muckerman: A little bit. He's opening up the Arctic, seeks to raise about $1.8 billion over the next decade by leasing oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, I think that's the most commonly known as ANRW, or something like that.
O'Reilly: Oh, God, I haven't heard that in, like, 10 years.
Muckerman: Because they haven't been drilling there, Sean. But it's about to be blasted all over headline news for the next decade, as he raises $1.8 billion.
O'Reilly: Didn't Shell just leave the Arctic because it's expensive and hard to do?
Muckerman: Oh, yeah, they lost billions up there.
O'Reilly: Why are we opening this up then? [laughs]
Muckerman: They had rigs in the ground, they didn't find oil they thought was there--
O'Reilly: Do you know the number? Was it $2 [billion]-$3 billion?
Muckerman: I don't know. It was plural.
O'Reilly: There were nine zeros.
Muckerman: I don't, frankly, know why we're opening this up. Maybe because we're nervous that shale will run out and we need offshore oil. But it seems like we've been saving our Gulf of Mexico offshore oil for the last few years. So, it'll be interesting to see if anyone bites.
O'Reilly: Right, because it's just opening it up to possibility.
Muckerman: Yeah, it's not that he's actually gotten bids, it's that he and his team just want to make a statement, I think.
