But first, let’s give our friends in the Gulf their due:

British energy giant BP has made a “giant” oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico after drilling one of the industry’s deepest-ever wells, it said Wednesday, in a further boost for crude supplies.

“BP announced today a giant oil discovery at its Tiber Prospect (well) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” the company said in a statement.

“The Tiber well was drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet (10,685 metres) making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry,” it added. …

The discovery is larger than BP’s Kaskida discovery in the same geological area three years ago, which contains around three billion barrels of oil.

Talking about a lot of oil in that field – but still, only a relative drop in the bucket compared with what might be available in Alaska. Of course, we’ll never know either way if a few well-connected bureaucrats in DC win the day.

But oh – imagine the possibilities if producers up here were able to unleash new seismic technology that allows them to see 4-D imagery (you thought there were only three dimensions, didn’t ya?) of energy-bearing formation underground. 4-D’s got all the axes covered, that’s a given – but it also allows scientists to observe the flow of energy over time, sometimes in near real time.

That way, we not only know where oil and gas was tomorrow and is today – we have a good chance of pinpointing where it’s going to be tomorrow.

And not for nothing, but we’re likely talking about an epic amount of energy that remains under de facto lock-and-key here. Last spring, the Bureau of Land Management put a conservative number on it:

According to a new Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report, vast untapped oil and natural gas resources exist on public lands in the U.S. These public lands are estimated to contain 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but are presently closed to energy production.

Many of those formal bans have been lifted, but an informal prohibition on accessing those vital resources remains very much intact today. Chief among those informal bans: Interior’s institutional ennui when it comes to discharging its responsibilities in Alaska.