Kuwait's biggest field starts to run out of oil

AMEInfofn ^ | 11-12-05 | Peter J. Cooper

[NYorkerInHouston]

It was an incredible revelation last week that the second largest oil field in the world is exhausted and past its peak output. Yet that is what the Kuwait Oil Company revealed about its Burgan field.

The peak output of the Burgan oil field will now be around 1.7 million barrels per day, and not the two million barrels per day forecast for the rest of the field's 30 to 40 years of life, Chairman Farouk Al Zanki told Bloomberg.

He said that engineers had tried to maintain 1.9 million barrels per day but that 1.7 million is the optimum rate. Kuwait will now spend some $3 million a year for the next year to boost output and exports from other fields.

However, it is surely a landmark moment when the world's second largest oil field begins to run dry. For Burgan has been pumping oil for almost 60 years and accounts for more than half of Kuwait's proven oil reserves. This is also not what forecasters are currently assuming.

[NewJerseyJoe]

If I recall correctly.... my understanding about oil wells is that, as years of production pass, the light sweet crude (the easily refined stuff) comes out of the ground first and is (obviously) the first to be depleted. What's left ("at the bottom") as an oil well ages is heavy, sour crude -- a sludgy concoction with lots of sulfur and other impurities. So the question is not how much is left, but (a) how hard is it to get out of the ground, and (b) how much difficulty/expense is involved in refining it to a useable form.

[RicocheT]

Kuwait's oil co. is state owned and not using the latest oil recovery technology. The US has good old boys in TX and OK who could squeeze oil out of your dish cloths.

If Kuwait hires our technology, it will be in the oil business for a long time.

[GOPJ]

When ME oil runs out, some very nasty chickens are going to come home to roost.

[NYorkerInHouston]

You are correct and if my understanding of oil fields is correct, after the heavy crude has been pulled up, you are left with geological equivalent of the oil sands (tar sands) in Alberta, only buried far to deep in the ground to do anyone much good.

[daybreakcoming]

But it will go back down. Slowly, over the next six months.

But the goods and services that went up in price because of the last rise in fuel will not go back down....not even slowly.

[DustyMoment]

The Caribou, oh the poor Caribou!!! The inhumanity of it all!!!

You left out the delicate tundra that . . . . . uh . . . . . . . . hmph! There must be SOMETHING that the "delicate tundra" is good for.

I'll think of it!

[DustyMoment]

GOT IT!!

The "delicate tundra" is good for keeping the soil from being naked!!!





(Yeah, THAT's it!)

[OregonRancher]

"The fall in production at Burgan is readily overcome, if this is an isolated event. However the great Saudi oilfield are of a similar age, and if the Saudi giants start declining as well, (Ghawar, Safaniya, Abqaiq, etc...) then that is not something easily overcome."

Oh, you're so right. The Ghawar field is being pressured with over a million gallons of sea water a day to keep up the yield, which is 30% water at the well head. Very serious sign of the field declining at a rapid rate.

[RandallFlagg]

Strangely, I'm sitting here wondering what porcupine caribou burgers taste like.

[jec41]

If I recall correctly.... my understanding about oil wells is that, as years of production pass, the light sweet crude (the easily refined stuff) comes out of the ground first and is (obviously) the first to be depleted.

You are correct and something that most people ignore is that light sweet crude peaked for world wide production in 2002 and has now declined 2.4 million barrels a day. Its the light crude that is $58 a barrel. Sour or heavy oil is much cheaper but cannot presently be handled by the refineries for gasoline.

[FreedomCalls]

I know where there's some more.

[null and void]

Chicken?

[jec41]

Oh, you're so right. The Ghawar field is being pressured with over a million gallons of sea water a day to keep up the yield, which is 30% water at the well head. Very serious sign of the field declining at a rapid rate

They were being pressured with over 3 million barrels in the early 70's. Its now over 15 million a day now.

[ZULU]

Not just the North Slope.

The idiots all oer the country are blocking drilling offshore in many areas, and still blocking new refineries.

If there was oil on the moon, somebody would complain about drilling there too.

[CodeJockey]

The author needs a refresher course in the English language.

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

Exhausted would imply that it has been 100 percent consumed and obviously past its peak output. After that statement I was not sure if the rest of the article was accurate.

[wayoverontheright]

In reality, the USA is using up the world's cheap oil first, while sitting on the reserves of the expensive oil.

It's not a bad position to be in, for long-term USA strength.

I've been thinking the same thing.

Ironic isn't it that the very anti-American, anti-capitalist Leftism which has paralyzed our crude extraction in the end only protects it for a better pay day.

[UseYourHead]

[Ro_Thunder]

Depends on the refinery, too. There are only a few in the US that can handle the sour or heavy oil.

[MeanWestTexan]

Yep. Not to mention coal and shale oil and the like.

North America is where all that is at.

We'll be fine. Expensive, yes.

But fine.

Europe? I hear peat moss works OK. Knew people that ran motorcycles with it buring in a side car. Smoky, though.

[MeanWestTexan]

"If I recall correctly.... my understanding about oil wells is that, as years of production pass, the light sweet crude (the easily refined stuff) comes out of the ground first and is (obviously) the first to be depleted."

No, that's just what people seek first, as it is basically a mix of kerosine and gasoline, so it needs little or no refining.

It doesn't come out first, but for human effort seeking it first.