Oil Industry Hesitates Over Moving Into Arctic Refuge Publicly, the biggest multinational petroleum companies, like Exxon Mobil (news/quote), Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and ChevronTexaco, back the Bush administration's assertion that developing the oil in the Arctic refuge is critical to the American economy. But privately, many large companies say the prospect, solely on business terms, is not terribly attractive. "Big oil companies go where there are substantial fields and where they can produce oil economically," said Ronald W. Chappell, a spokesman for BP Alaska, which officially supports opening the area to drilling. Using the acronym for the refuge, he continued, "Does ANWR have that? Who knows?" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/business/10ALAS.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all