The AP on Oil Reserves

Just for fun...this is how the AP describes Brazil's new oil find:

Last week, Brazil confirmed a monster offshore oil discovery and promising fields near the find, although full-scale extraction is unlikely until 2013 and will be very expensive because it is so far below the surface of the earth. State-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said reserves at Tupi field could be up to 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and initial production should exceed 100,000 barrels daily, though experts believe that will grow.

The DoE says the " expected" yield from ANWR would be significantly larger, but a quick search of Nexis shows the AP to be somewhat less enthusiastic about what they might otherwise describe as a mega-monster field. Here's the AP in May 2005 on ANWR:

barely more oil than the U.S. now consumes in a year.

As Brazil talks about becoming a net exporter of oil, and joining OPEC, the United States has even larger fields--so large they might replace entirely the amount of oil we import from Saudi Arabia--sitting untapped for fear of disturbing the caribou.