Posted on 09/29/2014 10:54:40 AM PDT by thackney
Rosneft and ExxonMobil have discovered oil in an area that may turn out to contain more hydrocarbons than the US Gulf of Mexico.
Over a month ago, Oilpro member Jeffrey Lareau reported that ExxonMobil and Rosneft had begun drilling a $700 million well in the Kara Sea in the Arctic, despite intensified measures taken by the US and EU against Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
The Universitetskaya-1 well (Russia's northernmost well) is the first of as many as 40 offshore wells Rosneft said it planned to drill in order to assess the potential of the unexplored Arctic by 2018. The well targeted the Universitetskaya- a geological formation approximately the same area as the city of Moscow.
Over the weekend, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin announced that the Universitetskaya-1 well discovered oil. For two days, Sechin sailed on a Russian research ship to the West Alpha rig where the discovery was revealed on Saturday.
The West Alpha is a 3rd gen semisubmersible drilling rig managed by drilling contractor North Atlantic Drilling.
This MODU is rated to drill in water depths of up to 2,000 ft. The MW floater is rated to achieve a maximum total drilling depth of approximately 20,000 ft. and can accommodate about 100 crew members. Station keeping is achieved via a dynamic positioning system, and this unit was built to work in harsh environments.
Controversy swirled around the Kara Sea project even before the escalation of the Russian/Ukraine conflict, as green peace activists boarded the rig as it sat in the harbor this spring ahead of mobilization.
Approximately 1 billion barrels of oil was discovered at the well, and nearby geology indicates that the surrounding region could contain more oil that the US sector of the Gulf of Mexico, Sechin said in a statement.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Sechin said, "It exceeded our expectations," and that the discovery is of "exceptional significance in showing the presence of hydrocarbons in the Arctic."
The well was drilled prior to the October 10 deadline ExxonMobil was granted by the US government per sanctions prohibiting US companies from working in Russia's Arctic offshore area. The company had been granted an extension from the US government, as the original deadline for ExxonMobil to shut down operations with its Russian partners was September 26.
Despite the discovery, Rosneft and ExxonMobil will not be able to do additional drilling, thus putting the exploration and development of the region in abeyance unless and until the US sanctions are abrogated or amended.
Between 2011 and 2013, a series of agreements between Rosneft and ExxonMobil were made in which ExxonMobil agreed to work with Rosneft in the Arctic and in West Siberia's Bazhenov shale. These agreements also yielded Rosneft receiving minority stakes in some GOM assets. It was also announced at the time that the two companies would work together in US shale.
Richard Keil, and ExxonMobil spokesperson, told Bloomberg via phone, "We have encountered hydrocarbons but it is premature to speculate on any potential outcome...Our current focus is on completing the well and safely winding down operations consistent with our license with the US government."
Earlier this month, Sechin said that Rosneft planned to invest $400 billion in the Arctic over the next 15 years. He told Der Spiegel, "We expect to open a new oil province there, with reserves comparable to the developed reserves of Saudi Arabia."
On Saturday, Sechin marked the discovery as the "united victory" of "ExxonMobil, Nord Atlantic Drilling, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, Baker, Trendsetter, FMC."
Sechin said further that the field will be called "Pobeda"- which means "Victory." The estimated resource base of the "trap" that the drilling had discovered was more than 750m barrels of high-quality light oil and 338 billion cubic meters of gas.
I believe oil is a natural subject, not formed over billions and billions of years by plant and dinosaurs material.God put it and natural gas in the earth knowing we would use it someday.
In the Gulf of Mexico they hit oil 18,000 down.
Explain that one.
Or that we use 21 million barrels of oil per day just in the US.
That is ONE rig I’d hate to work on!
Talk about COLD
Rush explained this two or three years ago and though I forget the reasoning, I accepted it as truth.
Yeah. You know it's gotta be pretty bad when you have to go way down south to get to Siberia.
Cognitive Dissonance?...............
Actually, core samples from the arctic sea bed contain fossils from many tropical life forms....meaning the arctic not only has been completely ice free, but very warm for long periods of time in the past.
BTW....I also believe in abiotic oil.
From Wiki:
In 2014, US government sanctions resulted in Exxon having until September 26 to discontinue its operations in the Kara Sea.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Sea
This like all the other commercial oil production sites, are located in sedimentary basins. Sedimentary basins are the accumulation of sediment, laid down from the surface.
You need to think in geological terms. Most folks cannot seem to wrap their minds around that spread of time. 1" of compacted sediment that took 1,000 years to accumulate becomes more than 6 miles deep in 400 million years.
And it isn't dinosaurs, that was a cartoon ad. The dinosaur is from Old Sinclair and other Oil ads because it was from rock laid down in pre-historic (dinosaur) age.
If you will learn a bit more about geology, including cap rocks, petroleum traps, etc, it can be come more clear.
This may actually help the Russians. The price of oil is drifting lower now, so a huge new supply would not help. If they can’t drill it for five years, they may get more money for it then.
Washington extended sanctions on Russia last week over its aggression in Ukraine. The new measures seek to stop billions of dollars worth of cooperation between Western and Russian energy companies on oil drilling in Russia’s Arctic, in Siberia and offshore. Companies have until Sept. 26 to stop the work.
The U.S. Treasury Department gave Exxon a short extension to wind down a rig, beyond the 14 days outlined in the sanctions, the Texas-based oil major said on Friday without elaborating.
“Following the short time extension, the license is non-renewable and no further work is permitted,” Exxon spokesman Richard Keil told Reuters.
UPDATE 4-Exxon winds down drilling as U.S. sanctions hit Russia
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/usa-exxon-russia-idUSL1N0RK1HA20140919
Exxon is already out, but it doesn’t change much. If they start pumping from there, the price of oil will drop to unsustainable for Russian economy level - suicide by overproduction of sorts. They entered a vicious circle: in order to support their ambitions, they must sell more hydrocarbons, yet by selling more they are dropping prices.
Dinosaurs also died by the billions on Saturns moons.
Is anyone else as amazed as I am at this technology? These engineers can put a floating chunk of steel on the Arctic ocean and drill a hole 20,000 feet deep in 2000ft of water.
I wonder if Exxon-Mobil left any technology with the Russian’s so they can gain access to that oil.
Without the proper equipment,that oil will remain below the surface of the Kara Sea.
BTW....I also believe in abiotic oil.”
++++++++++++++++
I believe that most of it is from an Earth's worth of decaying plant material after the flood.
I think it's doubtful that much of it is from dinosaurs
Whether Exxon is there or not, the oil is. And everybody knows it............
IIRC, back in the old Soviet days, they needed some western cash and threatened to dump a huge stockpile of diamonds on the market. DeBeers had to buy them all up to keep the market prices from collapsing...........
“Gee, now how did all them dinosaurs and plants get up there to die and leave us all this oil? /s”
Bingo! I propose that whoever uses the term “fossil fuels” should be set straight!
The biggest problem Russia currently has in developing this field is financial. This is a very expensive operation and they needed additional cash.
How does the US get to stop drilling in Russian territory?
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