Would oil drilled in the Refuge be exported?

A new controversy has blasted now in the Senate over the issue of drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

When Alaska Sen. Stevens stood on the Senate floor last month to support drilling oil in the Arctic Refuge, he said that this bill would boost our domestic oil supplies and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

However, it has now been predicted that there is high potential for the oil to be exported to foreign countries.

Here is an excerpt from the Seattle Times:

As the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was authorized that same year [1970s] to open Alaska's North Slope oil fields, Congress banned exporting the oil amid concerns that it might wind up being shipped overseas while Americans stood in lines at gas stations.

Soon after, oil companies and Alaskan leaders started lobbying to lift the export ban, arguing it threatened to flood West Coast refineries, artificially depressed the price of Alaskan oil and forced oil shipments to parts of the U.S. that lay much farther from Alaska than Asian ports.

The ban was overturned in 1995, an effort led by Alaska's congressional delegation, including Rep. Don Young and Stevens.

Stevens at the time hailed the decision as a "great victory for Alaska" that would encourage further oil development and create more jobs.

"This ban is unconstitutional and unjust. Lifting the ban would mean Alaska could sell its oil on the world market, which would increase state revenues by as much as $700 million," he said in a press release.

The end to the export ban never produced the big jump in foreign shipments some predicted, though it did boost prices for Alaskan oil, according to a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Just 4 percent of North Slope oil trickled to Asia between 1996 and 2000, before the flow shut off almost entirely. Since then, the only export was a single tanker in 2004, which delivered a load of oil to China en route to getting repaired at an Asian port.

The reason is that Alaskan oil fields aren't gushing crude as they once did. Alaskan oil production was cut in half between the 1988 peak and 2000. Now West Coast refineries soak up nearly every drop, according to data from the federal Energy Information Administration.

Washington is one of the major destination points for that oil. A string of refineries near Anacortes and Bellingham rely on Alaska for more than 90 percent of their crude oil, according to a 2004 report from the Seattle and Pierce County chambers of commerce.