Posted on 07/11/2006 6:49:17 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
With global energy demand soaring, Saudi Arabia, whose abundant reserves of light oil have supplied the world for decades, is looking to unlock its huge, hard-to-tap and largely unexploited reservoirs of heavy crude.
If it succeeds in overcoming the technical hurdles, the effort could significantly increase Saudi Arabia's oil reserves over the next several years, potentially adding some slack to tight energy markets. It would also be a blow to so-called peak-oil theorists who have forecast that world oil production is on the brink of peaking.
Crude-oil prices have more than tripled since 2002 as increases in global demand have outstripped production capacity. On Wednesday, crude-oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached a new high, settling at $75.19 a barrel before slipping back to finish the week at $74.09.
While there is still plenty of oil left in the ground, most of the supplies that are easy to reach already have been developed, forcing the global petroleum industry to turn to oil deposits that are trickier to recover. Heavy oils, which can be the consistency of molasses, or even denser, are costlier to bring to the surface than light oils. They also typically contain more contaminants like metals and sulfur.
Because refineries need special equipment to remove these impurities, heavy oil is priced lower than light oil. But a growing number of refineries around the world can handle heavy oil, turning it into such products as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil, and Saudi Arabia recently announced plans to build more of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The type of oil-rich rock formation found throughout the Middle East is carbonate. An earlier version of this article erroneously identified it as carbonite.
Carbonite? Isn't that what Han Solo was frozen in?
hmmmm. Maybe we can freeze Hillary.
more money for terrorists....lets just take saudi...throw them into the sea and start pumping and selling it ourserlves...or am i being insensitive?
She's already cold. Haven't you heard of the Brass brassiere thing?........
I know a couple of geologists who work for oil companies who would agree with the first part of this statement, but would completely disagree with the second part....
There is still a LOT of oil that is easily reachable, i.e. California Coast, Florida Coast, ANWR, etc. The oil companies are prevented from going after it.
Geologist just think about digging the hole.
Engineers think about digging the hole, getting the oil from the bottom of the string to the surface.
The suits thinks about: (1) digging the hole, (2) getting the oil to surface, and (3) getting it to market.
Aside from legal absurdities (ANWR, Florida, and New Mexico (most recently thank you dumby Gov. Richardson)), these remaining areas present some increased incremental costs in #3, especially.
Nothing insurmountable, but a real issue --- unless price stays where it stays.
(I'm a pet. geologist, pet. engineer, and suit.)
Nothing insurmountable, but a real issue --- unless price stays where it stays.
These two guys I spoke of work for different concerns, one Exxon-Mobile, the other various oil companies as a contractor. The gist of what I've been told is virtually everywhere they look they find oil. I've even been told that wells in West Texas, long thought to have played out many moons ago, are now producing again.
What really frosts me is the fact that our government is preventing oil companies from going after the reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, while Cuba, with help from China, will soon be drilling 80 miles from Key West. It really makes you wonder what side the Politico's are on, doesn't it?
Given all the instability in the world, and particularly in the Middle East, I can't see much of a significant downward trend in oil prices in the foreseeable future.
"I've even been told that wells in West Texas, long thought to have played out many moons ago, are now producing again."
Yeah, something like 80% or more of the oil is in place here. The problem is "lift." Costs about $28 in electricity, et al, to get a barrel out of the ground in that kind of field.
That's a problem when oil was $9 (like in 1999).
Not so much a problem at $74.
The consensus theory that we're constantly told about oil being a finite resource that will never be replenished is false, and Thomas Gold and the Russian scientists had it exactly right. Oil is produced deep within the earth from simpler hydrocarbons, and these hydrocarbons exist on other moons and planets, including some that are incapable of sustaining life (at least on the surface).
In '73 27% from imported oil
'80 42% from imported oil
'06 60% from imported oil. That's called a trend!
Furthermore, there is absolutely no way that the Wahhabi Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can continue to produce oil at it's current rate and simply cannot replace the giant Ghawar oilfield onshore (heavy oil production???) which is the main theme of Mathew Simmons book, "Twilight in the Desert". The Ghawar field is turning to a higher water cut just like the East Texas field, a naturally occurring process leading to the enventual demise of the field. Oilfields are just like people and die over time. The Ghawar oilfield has produced since 1937.
There is a great deal of relevant useful information in "Twilight in the Desert" (Simmons referenced 200 SPE papers pertaining to the oilfields of Saudi Arabia) and I personally found the book very interesting about the Al-Khafji field (part of the second largest giant Safaniya oilfield offshore Saudi Arabia) in the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia even though I worked for the Japanese for the Arabian Oil Company when it was operated by the Japanese(the Saudis kicked them out, now operated by Aramco). The Japanese import about 90-95% of their oil which is where the U.S. is headed.
There really isn't anything controversial about Mathew Simmons book, "Twilight in the Desert" (definitely not like the DaVinci Code). Any Freeper who wants to learn something should definitely read it. A great book.
Ya have to admire God's sense of humor. Putting the world's most valuable substance right under the biggest bunch of whack jobs around.
That is also what I've read. I recall hearing a late night radio program when I was traveling some years ago that interviewed a Russian scientist who's expertise was finding oil. This guy said if we could develop drilling rigs that would go a mile or two deeper we'd find vast deposits of oil that made current deposits seem pale in comparison. I also recall reading a theory that these hydrocarbon deposits are a result of a subterrainian microbes, as opposed to decaying plant and animal matter built up over time, because the deposits are well below strata where any plant or animal has ever been.
Fat boy pushed for the cut off exploration/production in various mesa areas. (Saving the blue-spotted dinglberry locust or something).
He's also so anti-business that no one in their right mind houses any facilities there. Pushes absurd insurance and other restrictions.
Just what NM needs is to drive away employers, but hey, they all relocated to just over the border in Texas, so he helped West Texas.
My guess is, these politicians are on the side of preserving their own political careers, and part of this is serving prominent special interests (envirowhackos, tourism, and so on), presumably so these interests will keep greasing their palms every two or six years. Unfortunately, what's good for their own careers is most definitely not good for our country, and I'm sure our enemies take some comfort from the resulting potentially suicidal energy policy (money goes to Middle East/potential terrorist sponsors, rather than American and British oil companies). It's not treason, just supreme selfishness on the part of the politicians.
Makes you wonder which side actually runs the show on this planet.
New Mexico has some beautiful scenery along I-40, but it wouldn't be a shame if the landscape was studded with oil rigs. After all, I saw a mesa out there that had windmills on it, so why not oil rigs. Why not? Probably because the special interests that grease Bill Dickson's palm think the rigs are icky-poo for the environment or some such nonsense. Or he himself is a enviro-whacko. In either case, he should not be in the governor's chair if he makes such insane decisions.
A person can hear many things when working in the oil industry. A lot of it is optimistic and some of it is unbelieveable. Everybody is selling something.
I guess the politicos in that state think that as long as there are illegal aliens to do their lawns and care for their kids, everything's fine, nyuk-nyuk.
Well, it's gas, so the well head (the part that stays there) could be below ground, or, if exposed, is no more than 10-12 feet tall and about as big around as a telephone poll.
I've got gas wells in and around Ft. Worth and in residential neighborhoods that the neighbors don't even know about.
It's just a power grab and pandering to idiot liberals in Sante Fe that relocated there.
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