Posted on 11/29/2008 4:16:04 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
Rio de Janeiro - More than 180 miles off Brazil's coast, trapped under a few miles of water, rock, and salt, lie billions of barrels of light, sweet crude – the largest discovery of oil in the Western Hemisphere in a generation.
Accessing it will require some of the most advanced technology on the planet. But Brazil, once a heavy importer that celebrated its "oil independence" only two years ago, is uniquely positioned to extract reserves trapped millions of years ago when South America and Africa began to separate. The state-controlled oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), says it will begin production by 2010.
The potential is enormous. Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the find "a gift from God" that would thrust Brazil to the list of top oil exporters and help end the nation's wealth disparities. It is also a significant discovery for the world: proven reserves have been declining, and drops in both Norway and Mexico last year were offset in part by Brazil.
New discoveries are creating fresh challenges as to how the oil wealth should be spent. And some of the enthusiasm has been tempered by the global market turmoil that will make financing harder to find. But the fact remains: as its peers in the region see their oil production slipping – most notably state-owned oil companies in Mexico and Venezuela – Petrobras is entering a new era as the region's silent giant. And with oil in ever-deeper waters and more inaccessible nooks, more countries are turning to Brazil for its expertise.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Finding the oil Washingon politicians won’t let American oil companies find at home.
Someone forgot to tell them you can’t drill your way to energy independence.
And, for those who like to remind us we only have 3% of the world’s reserves, Brazil didn’t have any reserves when they went looking. They found reserves, and then they drilled them.
We have four times the Saudis oil reserves in shale oil, coal diesel and ND oil in the lower 48 with an extraction cost of about $30 a barrell. Wonder why dubious credit card donations came from the Middle East? They want us to remain energy serfs.
As far as offshore - China and Russia are fighting over extracting about 10 Billion barrels off Cuba which is Florida’s oil.
Petrobras will have not tea party getting this oil. It is probably in 5,000 feet of water. Brazil, Canada and other shave the guts to explore and develop and avoid being serfs or stooges to climate change crap. Our reliance on ME oil will mean that Islamic terrorism will continue.
We can find it. We just can't extract it!
“The potential is enormous. Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the find “a gift from God” that would thrust Brazil to the list of top oil exporters and help end the nation’s wealth disparities.
In every nation where oil has been found, the wealth disparities have increased.
But, of course, Brazil is completely different.
the sad thing is with honest people a land with abundant reserves could be a utopia for it’s people.
Not just great paying jobs but also a National Reserve payment to each citizen. That would create a vast # of legitimate dollars (not borrowed) into the economy & numerous small businesses would be created to cater to the people.
we now live on borrowed time & money
yo tell the illegals jobs are plentiful in Brazil
Back up the bus dammet... didn't anyone tell these people? According to the lefty's, it takes 7-10 years to see the first drop of oil after you manage to find it.
75 miles from my house in the Gulf of Mexico you could drill up all the oil you want in 20-100 feet of water. Oil that could be brought to market easily in shallow water.
But,everyone here knows the rest.
Why we can't and what the political constraints are.
Meanwhile we are headed for $1.50 gas and high crude prices will be just a memory of an ignorant society with even dumber politicos who will do anything to get reelected even destroy their own country.
Port of Mobile anyone ? Houston ?
Accessing it will require some of the most advanced technology on the planetAs well as oil prices high enough to cover the costs of drilling- which $50/barrel is not enough.
We can find it. We just can't extract it!Yes, we can. It is just that it can not be done profitably at today's prices.
Make no mistake about it, US technology helped develope these fields in Brazil. Once Brazil decided to use foreign technology, investment and equipment..they started finding this oil in deep water. It isn’t cheap, but it will make them an oil exporter.
We could be doing the same..Gulf of Mexico, East Coast, West Coast, and Alaska. All that stands in our way are some Rats and Rhino’s.
There is this strange notion that there was a finite amount of petroleum that was created, virtually overnight, some several millions of years ago, and all the reservoirs under the crust of earth were filled up, and now, through the shortsighted greed of mankind, are rapidly being depleted.
First of all, oil is forming CONTINUOUSLY, through a variety of processes. Some is formed abiotically, without the process passing through any living creature at all. Carbon exists as a free substance, as evidenced by layers of graphite that are found in various dead volcanic activity regions. Graphite is but a form of elemental carbon, which has formed into stratified layers separated by water molecules. Diamonds, which form when these layers of graphite are put under extreme pressure and heat, are but another configuration. There is a good deal of elemental carbon in the earth’s mantle, and when the right conditions prevail, it can react with the hydrogen in water molecules, forming hydrocarbons and oxides of other elements, all without the presence of living matter at all. My contention is, that petroleum would form naturally, without the presence of any life processes whatsoever. Heat, pressure, and the presence of superheated water molecules is all that is necessary. And all this may be found at great depths in the earth’s crust. Over time, and the shifting of earth’s mantle, these pockets reach a level that may be recovered by existing technology.
It is also true that metabolic processes may form various kinds of hydrocarbons as well. The tendency is for the production of the hydrocarbons, in most cases, to end up poisoning and thus destroying the very living organisms that convert other organic material to kerogen, the stuff of crude oil. Certain varieties of algae and other single-celled life forms are particularly adept at converting carbon dioxide and the presence of water back into hydrocarbons and free oxygen, but then, the oxygen becomes the contaminant.
But probably the biggest source of regeneration of petroleum comes from the trapping of a substance called Methane Hydrate under strata of sedimentary rock. Methane Hydrate forms under conditions of cold, about 38º F., and pressure, about six to ten times normal atmospheric, where there is methane dissolved in water. These conditions are found at the base of the continental shelf which surrounds every large land body, and even many island chains. All water in the ocean, whether in a polar region or at the tropics, stratifies by temperature, with the densest water, that found at various depths greater than about 1,500 feet most anywhere, always about 38º F. Methane that is formed by decomposition of organic matter is continuously being dissolved in the water at that depth, and its most stable physical configuration is in the matrix of water mixed with methane, which is Methane Hydrate. These were once thought to be laboratory curiosities, until it was learned that nature is forming this stuff all the time, and in fact, there are some huge accumulations on the ocean floor, sometimes of several hundred feet in depth. Since Methane Hydrate is slightly more dense than the surrounding saline ocean water, it remains in place, eventually getting covered over with sediment, and the sediment becomes rock, creating a reservoir of trapped Methane Hydrate. Natural heat seepage from the earth’s mantle below causes the Methane Hydrate to dissociate into saline water and high-pressure methane. Methane, in the presence of a nickel-iron catalyst (in large quantity, relatively speaking, also from the earth’s depths), is converted to longer-chained hyudrocarbons, the mix known as kerogen or crude oil. And all of this with no further biological activity than the decomposition of organics into methane in the first place.
The actual conversion of methane into hydrocarbons of higher order actually goes very quickly, but the pocket of crude oil may lay there for a matter of a very few years (instances of which, some supposedly “dry” oil wells regenerate) or for eons, until the reservoir ruptures by a fissure in the overlying sedimentary rock, or an oil well rig penetrates to that level.
Peak oil is a myth, and even so, we are now sufficiently technologically advanced, that we could manufacture synthetic crude oil to whatever specifications we want, by controlling the conditions of temperature, pressure and time, converting organic waste to kerogen continuously by a process known as Thermal Depolymerization. We can use two stones to kill one bird, disposing of organic waste that would otherwise decompose slowly and probably with a great deal of stench and threat to the surrounding environment, and deriving an end product we may put to good use immediately, as a petrochemical feedstock, or directly as a fuel to power our industrial civilization. I see this as a way to dispose of a considerable amount of daily waste stream, and make ourselves more nearly self-sufficient in augmenting petroleum reserves.
Certainly they can project sufficient revenues over the life of the oil field. A field that size will last decades. Prices over that time will certainly be enough to recoup their investment, and then some.
Good post.
You may laugh but based on data coming back from our planetary probes I’m coming to the conclusion that the universe is made from hydrocarbons.
My daughters and I were on vacation in Brazil in September. Crossing from Rio to Niteroi across the long bridge Ponte Pres. Costa E Silva, you see an enormous offshore rig being constructed in Niteroi. The rig is lying on its side during construction and there’s a huge banner across the top that says Energy for Brazil. Even more fascinating, you see what appears to be an operating drilling platform right in the bay between Rio and Niteroi. It was really refreshing seeing a country proud of its energy exploration and recovery operations. It didn’t seem like there were any namby pamby, bed wetting liberals in sight.
Well, a big reason libs oppose expanded drilling in the U.S. is because it is done by private corporations. In Brazil, Petrobras sells stock to the public, but the majority of the company is owned by the government. Environmentalists are leftist socialists, first and foremost. Thus, they have less of an objection to drilling if it is done by a nationalized (or partly nationalized) entity.
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