Second largest oil field in the world is exhausted and past its peak output

http://www.energybulletin.net/10878.html ^

[mc6809e]

Kuwaiti oil production from the world's second-largest field is ``exhausted'' and falling after almost six decades of pumping, forcing the government to increase spending on new deposits, the chairman of the state oil company said.

The plateau in output from the Burgan field will be about 1.7 million barrels a day, rather than as much as the 2 million a day that engineers had forecast could be maintained for the rest of the field's 30 to 40 years of life, said Farouk al-Zanki, the chairman of state-owned Kuwait Oil Co. Kuwait will spend about $3 billion a year for the next three years to expand output and exports, three times the recent average.

To boost oil supplies, ``Burgan by itself won't be enough because we've exhausted that, with its production capability now much lower than what it used to be,'' al-Zanki said during an interview in his office in Ahmadi, 20 kilometers south of Kuwait City. ``We tried 2 million barrels a day, we tried 1.9 million, but 1.7 million is the optimum rate for the facilities and for economics.''

[razorback-bert]

Looks as if the oil field rumors of seven or so years ago are coming out in the mainstream.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

This article is 6 months old. Is there a follow-up to it?

[Paddlefish]

I seem to remember in the early '70's that the environmental experts said that the world only had enough oil reserves to last 25-30 years. So this is apparently way overdue.,-}

[mc6809e]

I seem to remember in the early '70's that the environmental experts said that the world only had enough oil reserves to last 25-30 years. So this is apparently way overdue.,-}

It really is "The Boy who Cried Wolf" playing out on a global scale.

Environmentalists have been crying "disaster" for so long that no one takes real problems seriously.

[Randy Larsen]

Maybe they need to try drilling the wells deeper.

[RightWhale]

Is 1.7 million barrels a day considered exhausted in the oil sheikhdoms?

[RightWhale]

It's always been 20 years. That is the standard number of years of lifetime in engineering design projects, the point where the present worth is practically about the same as if the project lasts a billion years.

[Battle Axe]

All oil came from the photosynthetic process. In order to bypass all the Arabs and the Chavezes, we need to return to the sun.

There are plenty of places in the US that have 300 days of sunlight. If we can find chloroplasts, or photosynthetic bacteria and enslave them in panels that rotate with the sun, we could harvest the products, simple sugars that would then be refined into something combustible.

The energy that is released in the combustion engine is the energy held in the co-valent bonds. We can get more co-valent bonds going back to the sun and making our own.

Ethanol is a partial step. We are asking corn plants to use the photosynthetic process to make them, but this uses land that can be used for food.

I want to go to the 4 corners region and set up panels, like solar panels, but with the enslaved chloroplasts. The southern sloped could have the panels and the northern slopes could be the towns where the people live that monitor the panels.

Someone tell me this will work!!!!

[mysterio]

Funny how these articles always seem to surface on the net on Sunday nights. Very funny indeed. Looks like someone wants a strong opening in oil trading tomorrow.

[TexasTransplant]

Those Idiots may want to consider flow disruption caused by all of the wells ignited by Saddam some years ago, some of those wells were capped some (most) returned to production, but flow patterns changed and well plans changed, postponed or canceled because of the damage to the existing well or cost to expand or side drill from the same well.

(PS It took 50 years to drill those wells).

The sky is not falling

TT

[neutrino]

Peak oil cometh.

Don't believe it? Read the Hirsch report from SAIC on the DOE website.

Link

It's a PDF document, and all 91 pages are worth reading.

If Peak Oil is now - as I believe it is - then the Hirsch report suggests that mitigation may take 20 years or more. I like to look at the bright side - Peak Oil may well destroy globalization. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no good!

[Old Professer]

"``We tried 2 million barrels a day, we tried 1.9 million, but 1.7 million is the optimum rate for the facilities and for economics.''"

Read, 'and for economics' as, 'to squeeze every last nickle out of the infidels.'

[Nomorjer Kinov]

Dueling links, FWIW...

Peak Oil? Maybe not

[John Valentine]

Someone tell me this will work!!!!

That someone won't be me.

[neutrino]

Perhaps one should consider the underlying link, the one that presents the professor of journalism to us.

I believe I'd rather take the word of Matthew Simmons, who has been a successful investment banker in the oil business for decades, or SAIC that is one of the top defense contractors in the U.S.

Here's the professor's home page: LINK

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>>"Someone tell me this will work!!!!"<<<<<

Proven Technology, it is called "Nuclear Energy" and one day we will also harness the primary Sun energy "Fusion"

TT

[P-40]

Supposedly, the big reason that Dubai is straining to become a global powerhouse is because it knows the days of oil money is coming to an end.

[Rembrandt]

Ohhhh no, the sky is falling.

Here, Mr. Bill, here's a treat for you.

No one knows the true status of an oil reserve; all they can do is guess. Depending on the political persuasion of the person making the guess, they'll flavor it one way or the other depending on how the winds are blowing. Call those winds -- "they call the wind Monica." Takeoff on old song.

Monica? Blowing? Guess you had to be there.

[x1stcav]

So, let me guess, the oil they have left should be worth $100/bbl?

This is too transparent.