The researchers looked into 35 news reports between December 2000 and September 2001 when the debate over whether to allow oil drilling in this pristine part of Alaska was at its most intense.

"The media reports (on average) implicitly overstated the economically recoverable reserves in the 1002 area by about a factor of three," the researchers said.

Assuming an oil price range of between $US15 to $US25 a barrel (1996 dollars), the researchers estimated economically recoverable reserves at between zero and 5.6 billion barrels (bbls). The media's most often quoted figure was 16 billion bbls, which was based on a 1998 study by the US Geological Survey.

Some advocates of ANWR development disagree with the assumptions made in the 1998 USGS report and argue that with recent technological advancements in seismic imaging and precision drilling, along with recent higher oil prices, this should pull the mid-range economically recoverable estimates up to the 10 billion bbl mark.

Alaskan scientists and the local population will probably be hoping that the recoverable reserves are zero and no drilling takes place at all after a recent study found that toxins from the crude oil split by the Exxon Valdez in 1989 are still harming sea life in Prince William Sound.

"Within that area, I think its going to take a long time for that oil to be gone and for the effects to go away," said a scientist at the USGS Alaskan Science Centre. "There's still a problem, and its appears that it may last for a number of years yet."