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The World's Biggest Oil Reserves
Yahoo Finance ^ | 1/25/2010 | Christopher Helman

Posted on 01/26/2010 1:30:11 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld

This month Iraq will finalize contracts with the likes of ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP to develop some of its biggest oil fields. These giants are among the world's last remaining pockets of so-called "easy oil." They don't require ultradeep drilling or innovative production techniques, just the application of Big Oil know-how. No wonder the oil companies agreed to develop Iraq's fields without even getting an ownership stake in the fields and collecting as little as $1.15 per barrel recovered.

Given the size of Iraq's undeveloped giants there are no technical reasons why within 10 years the country can't supplant both Iran and Russia to become the world's No. 2 oil producer after Saudi Arabia. No wonder Iraq holds three of the top 10 fields of the future.

The world gets its daily ration of 85 million barrels of oil from more than 4,000 fields. Most of these are small, less than 20,000 barrels per day. Giants, producing more than 100,000 bpd, account for just 3%. Then there's the megafields that gush out 1 million bpd. These are the most important sources of energy in the world--fields worth fighting over. In figuring the top 10 fields of the future, we're not interested in most of the giants of yesteryear, and not necessarily even the giants of today. Just the giants of tomorrow--those fields that might not even be producing yet, but will likely be doing better than 1 million bpd a decade from now.

The once and future king of the world's oil fields, Ghawar, in Saudi Arabia, ranks first on our list. It is thought to have had more than 100 billion barrels of recoverable oil in place.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: energy; exxonmobil; ghawar; middleeast; oil; oilreserves; saudiarabia

1 posted on 01/26/2010 1:30:11 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
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To: sonofstrangelove

G_d doth have a humor in his placement of oil.


2 posted on 01/26/2010 1:36:57 AM PST by Rick_Michael (Have no fear "President Government" is here)
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To: Rick_Michael
G_d doth have a humor in his placement of oil.

Yes he does.

These are the same companies that Chavez ran out of Venezuela when he nationalized their holdings.

3 posted on 01/26/2010 1:59:32 AM PST by Texas Jack
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To: Texas Jack

U.S. should just cut of Chavez for being a pain. Make him sell his oil wholesale, i.e., through another country that marks it up and sells to us. Why do let CITGO operate here ?


4 posted on 01/26/2010 2:08:31 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (Huguenot)
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To: PieterCasparzen
U.S. should just cut of Chavez for being a pain. Make him sell his oil wholesale, i.e., through another country that marks it up and sells to us. Why do let CITGO operate here?

Why do people continue to patronize CITGO stations? No one buys Hugo's gas, Hugo doesn't stay here.

5 posted on 01/26/2010 3:02:07 AM PST by Dahoser (Separation of church and state? No, we need separation of media and state.)
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To: Dahoser; PieterCasparzen

FYI : Much of OOGO’s oil is brought to Louisiana to be

refined into home heating oil for the north,,,

About 80% total comes through my state...


6 posted on 01/26/2010 3:12:48 AM PST by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Y’know when I was over there I would see oil oozing out of the ground in places there wasn’t supposed to be any oil, like the center of the country. Then I looked at a map of the “known” fields of Iraq and noticed they’re all near the borders, i.e., close to transport systems out of the country. If/when the Iraqis get the S together they’re going to have a very wealthy country.


7 posted on 01/26/2010 3:36:56 AM PST by Justa
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To: Dahoser
Why do people continue to patronize CITGO stations?

Because 90% don't know anything about where the stuff they buy originates. Even if they were informed they wouldn't care.

8 posted on 01/26/2010 4:21:41 AM PST by ASA Vet (Iran should have ceased to exist Nov 5, 1979, but we had no president then either.)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Don’t believe this, there isn’t enough oil left. I know it for a fact, I was told we are going to run out of oil by 1986. Jimmah doesn’t lie. Also, the more we use oil, the greater the chance that the earth will become unbalanced, spin off its axis, and we will all be doomed. It will be the end of mankind. s/


9 posted on 01/26/2010 4:39:09 AM PST by Bringbackthedraft (Don't blame me, I voted for Palin! And I will AGAIN!)
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To: crescen7

“The $1~2 a barrel is guaranteed profit AFTER all cost of exploration and production.”

The link below is an example of an Iraq Producing Oil Field Technical Service Contract:

http://www.iraqoilreport.com/blando/PFTSC.pdf

This is the earlier version, there are some changes in terms from this sample contract that more favor the oil company, but it is the most complete example I could find.

The discussed per barrel fee is the Renumeration Fee. The oil companies also recover capital costs and operational cost as detailed in article 19 starting on page 30 of 86.


10 posted on 01/26/2010 6:42:31 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Dahoser
Not just CITCO.

The HOVENSA refinery in the Virgin Islands is co-owned by Hess Oil and Venzuela. Much of the gasoline marketed in the Northeast is from Venzuela crude.

11 posted on 01/26/2010 8:12:42 AM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: myknowledge

bump


12 posted on 01/31/2010 7:36:28 PM PST by ASA Vet (Iran should have ceased to exist Nov 5, 1979, but we had no president then either.)
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