Posted on 07/14/2005 9:56:01 PM PDT by Lazamataz
First came Holstein, then Mad Dog, and soon, Thunder Horse. Atlantis will join them next year. The four giant oil fields, operated by BP PLC (BP ) and located under thousands of feet of water off the coast of Louisiana, are just beginning to pump their first barrels. At their peak rates later in the decade, they'll produce some 500,000 bbl. per day, an amount akin to floating a small Middle Eastern country such as Syria or Yemen into the Gulf of Mexico. "Add them together, and it's a massive step change," says David Eyton, BP's vice-president for deepwater in the Gulf. "The investment we're making will more than offset declines we're seeing in Alaska and the Continental Shelf."
It may seem today as if the world is running out of oil. The price of crude has hovered around $57 a barrel, in part on fears of a supply crunch in the fourth quarter. Chevron (CVX ) and China National Offshore Oil are battling for control of Unocal (UCL ). The Senate on June 28 passed the latest version of an energy bill stuffed with $18 billion in tax incentives to encourage energy production. Even legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens is predicting $3-a-gallon gasoline within a year. The national average now: a pricey $2.22.
No doubt, the energy industry is in a precarious position. Two decades of falling prices in the 1980s and '90s discouraged investment. With many of the easy-to-find fields already on the map, big oil producers have been forced to look for new sources in ever-more-hostile environments: not just under thousands of feet of water but also across frozen tundra and in countries rocked by political unrest. As a result, production has risen sluggishly in recent years, while energy demand, particularly from the booming China and
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.businessweek.com ...
Didn't Jimmy Stewart do a movie about oil in the Louisiana Gulf? Pelican Bay or something like that?
The down side is that the retirement age will have to be raised to 987 to keep social security solvent.
"At their peak rates later in the decade, they'll produce some 500,000 bbl. per day..."
In an article today about Thunder Horse (where it is leaning because of Dennis), I thought they said just this one platform was already pumping a million barrels a day??
"Didn't Jimmy Stewart do a movie about oil in the Louisiana Gulf? Pelican Bay or something like that?"
I remember that! Something about building the first offshore platform....
It simply means that they know of more that what they are letting on PLUS they know that WE have a lot of oilfields to be exploited.
They should NOT be allowed to get a foothold in USA and we now need to get rid of those enviro-wackos so that reasonable gas prices can come back again.
I miss those days when Premium was $1.44/gallon in Florida.
no but it is costing more to find and develope. Easy pickens is over so anyway you slice it higher energy costs. Are we running out - nope but $ 30 barrel oil is long gone baring global recession.
Yep. That was it. The first offshore platform. All the local fisherman hated them until they figured out that the oil rigs attracted the shrimp they netted.
No one is worried about running out of crude or product this winter; the focus is next year (rightly or wrongly).
In plain English, the energy mkts are running on 100-octane fear, right now. Look at NG tonight -- up 25-30 cents/MMBTU on absolutely nothing but a 15-25 mile northward shift in the predicted course of Emily. What nonsense; the chaps predicting Emily's course are the very same ones who can't tell you with any reliability whether or not it will rain in your town next Tuesday.
However, fear is fear, and -- from a trading standpoint -- said emotion, no matter how irrational as to hard fact, must be respected by anyone trading in a fear-driven mkt.
Bush's fault and when did Karl Rove know about this?
Okay, you're right. It was the whole Gulf that is already producing that:
"The gulf currently produces about 1.5 million barrels per day of oil, about 25 percent of total U.S. output."
It's still fun to daydream about :)
Well, it don't come from dead animals. But it certainly doesn't come from pressuruzing sand, at least in any conventional way of defining sand (SiO). It appears to bubble up from the moho boundary.
I think we will find new energy breakthroughs before we ever run out of oil. The next 100 years will produce technologies indistinguishable from magic.
And that is a fact that has been just recent brought to light.
Does anyone have a chart with bollinger bands?
You need LOTS of open space, no close cities, rail transportation AND pipeline access for feedstock, to build a modern refinery. There are NO places anymore, with NIMBY, Enviromental Impact Statements, and hobby farms in every direction.
That's easy for you to say...
The only problem is....... the effect of hurricanes passing through.
Are you still out there? Care to comment?
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