Gull Island Will Blow Your Mind!

As the wind took that huge black cloud farther and farther north, it burned fiercely and seemed to turn an even deeper black. The ARCO official seemed to have an excitement about him that Lindsey had never seen before. He was elated and could hardly contain himself. He did not usually get this way … it was not his nature.

“This must be a big one!” he exclaimed. “Something exciting must be happening. Maybe it’s another big discovery.” He looked and watched, and kept looking—he stood there as though he was frozen, but he was too exuberant to freeze. Their hands were numb because they could simply couldn't stop watching the size of the big burn, nor could they stop the excitement caused by what they were looking at. At last he looked back at Lindsey and said, “Chaplain, I think we have just proven something phenomenal—something we have been looking for for a long time. Come on, quick! Let’s go back to base and look at the technical data. Let’s see what we can find out about statistics. Chaplain, I think this is going to be exciting!”

They got back into the pickup truck, and he started off very quickly. The man drove really fast that day. And as he did so, he explained to Lindsey of how you could tell what an oil well was going to produce by the burn, and what volume and the quantity it was going to be, and what the pressure and the depth will be. He explained much of the technical detail as to how they drilled that well. He himself had followed it very closely, because they thought that possibly it might produce another pool of oil. They had hoped it might prove to be a pool as big as the one from which they were producing at Prudhoe Bay. If they could find another pool of oil and prove it, it would be one of the greatest finds in years.

So they rode quickly back to the base and walked into the office. The official did not hesitate for one moment to show Lindsey what it was that had been proven. He took out the statistics and showed Lindsey the papers, showing proof of the find. He went from place to place that day with excitement in his voice as he told the few officials who would come and look. The three or four officials that he had called, gathered around to see what had happened at Gull Island.

All the time, Lindsey was trying his best to find out what was in the specifics, because after all, he did not know all those terms he was using. Lindsey was both a layman and a Chaplain, he didn’t understand some of the data they were discussing, so he couldn't present it in his book. They were so busy and excited themselves that they did not have the time to explain the technicalities to him. However, Linsey could tell by the excitement they were showing, and the way they were expressing themselves, that something big had happened.

After everyone had left the office, the oil company official said to Lindsey, “Chaplain, we have just discovered and proven another pool of oil as big and maybe even bigger than the Prudhoe Bay Field.
 This is phenomenal beyond words.”

He again said, “There is no energy crisis. Now we can build a second pipeline—now we can produce not only 2 million barrels of oil every 24 hours, but we can produce 4 million barrels of oil every 24 hours. Chaplain, this is what we as oil company officials have been waiting for.”

Then suddenly the excitement was wiped off his face as he looked back at Lindsey and said, “I hope the Federal government doesn’t pose any difficulty over this because of the fact that it’s located on the very edge of the designated area from which we can produce.” Then he looked back to Lindsey and said, “Chaplain, if this is allowed to be produced, we can build another pipeline, and in another year’s time we can flood America with Alaskan oil, our own oil, and we won’t have to worry about the Arabs. We won’t be dependent on any nation on earth. Chaplain, if there are two pools of oil here this big, there are many, many dozens of pools of oil all over this North Slope of Alaska.”

He went on to say, “Chaplain, America has just become energy independent.”
This high official of ARCO said, “America has just become energy independent.”

That day, Lindsey was rejoicing. This all meant that if we could produce from the entire North Slope of Alaska, America would be oil independent! Four million barrels of oil every 24 hours-just from two of the many pools of oil! America wouldn't have to depend on anybody. The energy crisis had just come to a screeching halt—this ought to hit the front page in every newspaper across America! This was the most exciting thing since the original find at Prudhoe Bay. Homes won’t go cold anymore. American citizens will not be waiting in line for crude oil or gasoline any longer.

That night, Lindsey hardly slept, for he had just witnessed one of the most spectacular events since the original find at Prudhoe Bay. Lindsey remembers that evening, as he lay in bed, trying to count sheep. Trying to find some way to go to sleep. He kept going over all the things he had seen, and what he had been told.

In his mind he kept trying to think about that technical data and to visualize it, to understand some of the statistics he had seen. He thought that he would wake up the next morning and hear the entire nation of America literally shouting for joy. He thought that there would no longer be any talk of an energy crisis. Yes, we are energy independent!

Somehow in the early hours of the morning, Lindsey must have drifted off to sleep, with visions of oil burns in his mind instead of sugar plums. “This means the end of the energy crisis for America” kept going through his head—for now they had proven two major pools on the North Slope of Alaska, and this oil official was exactly right and the other soundings were probably right too, and there would be many pools of oil here.
The only thing they had to do at this point was to let private enterprise loose.

With an incentive like this, gas prices would come down, so that industry could run full speed ahead. The trucks would not be left without diesel fuel. There would be plenty of gas for my vehicle! Prices? Ha!-Tell the Arabs they can have their old oil!

So that night, as Lindsey went to bed dreaming of the glory of his great nation, as a red blooded American, proud of the fact that the Yankees had produced again, just as they always have.

The next morning, he woke up and it was snowing outside. He had to get through the chow line quickly. He was quite sure that his excitement was shared by everyone by now, and that by the time he arrived, the place would be crawling with reporters gathering all the data, for after all, a discovery of this magnitude should be spread all over the country.

He finished breakfast quickly. Lindsey remembers how he got in the pickup truck and cranked it up as he headed off to the base camp. He didn’t even wait for the truck to warm up. This was exciting. This was phenomenal. The American people ought to rejoice over this!

Lindsey walked into the base camp, and there was nothing exceptional going on. He went by the security guard, and he was just nonchalantly sitting there, as if nothing special had taken place.

Lindsey said, “Sir, where is Mr. So and So?”
The guard replied, “He’s out riding around in his vehicle.”

Lindsey asked, “Can you call him on the radio?”
The guard answered, “Sure.”

He called him on the radio and said, “Chaplain Williams is here to see you.” The man called back with what seemed to be an air of fear in his voice, and he said, “Chaplain Williams? Yes, please tell him to stay right there and not leave. I need to see him. Tell him to please wait for me in my office. I’ll be in immediately.”

Lindsey went to his office and sat down, and wondered why it was that on this day the trumpets were not sounding. This was a phenomenal thing, and yet there seemed to be no fuss all about it at all. Sure enough, without delay, the oil company official soon walked into his office and closed the door behind him.

He looked at Lindsey with a frown on his face and said, “Chaplain, what you saw yesterday, don’t you ever as long as you live, let anything out that would tell anyone the data that you saw on those technical sheets.”

Lindsey said, “But sir, that’s going to end the energy crisis in America!”
He said, “No, Chaplain, it’s not. Quite to the contrary.”

As he sat down behind his desk, Lindsey noticed that he was very worried, and then he continued, “Chaplain, you weren’t supposed to see what I showed you yesterday. I’m sorry I let you go with me out there to watch that burn. I’m even more perturbed that I let you look at the technical data, because, Chaplain, you and I might both be in trouble if you ever tell the story of Gull Island.”

Within a few days after the find and the proof of the find (proof of a vast amount of oil), Lidnsey listened as the official told him that the government had ordered the oil company to seal the documents, withdraw the rig, cap the well, and not release the information about the Gull Island find.

That oil field is partially under the area that the oil companies were not allowed to produce from—it is in the Arctic Ocean and microorganisms of that area might be destroyed if an oil spill ever happens. Seal the documents, withdraw the rig, and cap the well!

The company official said to Lindsey,”Chaplain, that great pool of oil is probably as big as the Prudhoe oil field, it has been proven, drilled into, and tested—we know what is there and we know the amount that is there, but the government has ordered us not to produce that well, or reveal any information as to what is at Gull Island.”

Lindsey could hardly believe what he was hearing. He walked out of the oil company official’s office very perturbed, and as he did, he realized that he was only one of about six men alive who would even know the truth about Gull Island, or would ever even see the technical data. He was astonished that day because of this restriction on releasing data about the production from beneath a small island out in the Arctic Ocean.

This could end the oil crisis, but Lindsey had come to the conclusion in his mind, with no doubt whatsoever, that the Federal government would never want that oil produced.

It was not the oil companies that ordered the rig removed and the well capped. It was not the oil companies that said, “We cannot go beyond our 100-mile boundary.”

It was not the oil companies that said, “We will not tell the American people the truth.”
Rather, it was the Federal and State government.

Gull Island was capped and the rig was removed, and the truth had never been told, until now.

Reference: http://www.lindseywilliams.net/lindsey-williams-the-energy-non-crisis-chapter-16/