Posted on 03/18/2010 1:03:54 PM PDT by smokingfrog
James R. “Jim Bob” Moffett could have retired years ago with his legend fully intact. Today, however, in the twilight of a long, storied and sometimes controversial career, the 71-year-old oil and mining executive is taking what amounts to a victory lap.
Moffett, co-chairman of New Orleans' McMoRan Exploration Co., is riding high again after the recent discovery of a major natural gas field in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, touted as the biggest there in decades.
Called Davy Jones, the discovery is significant for more than its size: It is in an ancient layer of sediment buried at a depth few in industry have ever drilled. As such, it could herald a new frontier for oil and gas development in the heavily explored offshore region.
“Nobody thought we'd be sitting here with this kind of opportunity,” Moffett recently told a group of geologists in Houston, during a technical presentation — liberally sprinkled with “damns” and “dadgums” — that showed off both his acumen as a geologist and his salty wit.
Confirming Davy Jones' potential will require further tests, and huge technical challenges remain in extracting gas from
formations more than five miles below the sea floor, where pressures and temperatures are extreme. But Moffett, true to form, said he is undeterred.
“I've never met a good wildcatter who quits,” he said.
Such bravado, once a hallmark of the oil business, is rare today. Oil and gas companies now pride themselves more on avoiding risk than courting it, and generally prefer to let their financial results do the bragging.
Moffett, however, has achieved something like folk hero status in the Oil Patch for doing the opposite — and backing it up by succeeding.
“He's known as a risk-taker, out of the old wildcatters' mold,”
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Hmm, curoius. I would presume there is a thickening of the crust at that location. Typically the temperature is 400, which turns any oil to goop.
“how are things haven’t heard from you lately”
Had to go to Hungary of all places. What a dump.
Yes, I know it is sedimentary. Trying to go through igneous or metaphoric rock would be rather difficult to do.
Sedimentary rock composes about five percent of the Earth’s crust and basically like a veneer on it. I just don’t know how far it extends down. Do you by any chance?
Of course, I saw a few unique failure modes as well. When a $1000 housing collapses on $15,000 worth of electronics, there’s nothing to rework left.
If a seal fails at high pressure, the resulting flood can have some nasty effects too, like cutting through interior parts.
bump
I’m going to have to check out Transco and Williams Companies stocks.
“Viton was the material of choice for the high temp / high pressure”
We run Viton o-rings at 325 centigrade (616F) for months at a time with no problems under high vacuum 10-6 torr. 30K PSI is a different story and should be interesting
Avery Island has (or did have at one time) one of the largest collections of camellias in the world. About this time of year, the azaleas should be in full flower.
Abiotic always made more sense than that old wives tale about the dinosaurs.
Depends, varies where in the planet you are.
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