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Is There Plenty Of Oil?
Business Week ^ | July 14, 2005 | By Christopher Palmeri, with Peter Coy in New York

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: energy; oil; skyisnotfalling; weareallgonnadie
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To: Lazamataz

Didn't Jimmy Stewart do a movie about oil in the Louisiana Gulf? Pelican Bay or something like that?


21 posted on 07/14/2005 10:24:48 PM PDT by writer33 (Rush Limbaugh walks in the footsteps of giants: George Washington, Thomas Paine and Ronald Reagan.)
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To: Lazamataz
We're not all gonna die!!!!

The down side is that the retirement age will have to be raised to 987 to keep social security solvent.

22 posted on 07/14/2005 10:24:57 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Lazamataz

"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??


23 posted on 07/14/2005 10:34:22 PM PDT by need_a_screen_name
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To: writer33

"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....


24 posted on 07/14/2005 10:37:12 PM PDT by need_a_screen_name
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To: Lazamataz
Imho, its a VERY GOOD SIGN that the Chi-Commies are trying to grab US oil companies.

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.

25 posted on 07/14/2005 10:40:03 PM PDT by prophetic ("I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."--Dan Rather)
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To: Lazamataz

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.


26 posted on 07/14/2005 10:44:07 PM PDT by deathb4dishoner
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To: need_a_screen_name

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.


27 posted on 07/14/2005 10:45:32 PM PDT by writer33 (Rush Limbaugh walks in the footsteps of giants: George Washington, Thomas Paine and Ronald Reagan.)
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To: PAR35
You won't see $28/bbl again in your lifetime, bar a worldwide depression or the absolute collapse of Islam. You can figure the odds on either of those occurrences at your leisure. Like it or not, demand growth is and will continue to outstrip effective supply growth, by which term the industry really means ''guaranteed'' supply.

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.

28 posted on 07/14/2005 10:49:58 PM PDT by SAJ
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To: need_a_screen_name
Thunder Horse is not (and never was) scheduled to go into production until next year, possibly even now into 2007, although BP are saying that it can be put right in short order given 3-4 weeks of calm seas. At the moment, the condition of this platform should have precisely zero effect on the energy mkts. The fact that its condition is having an effect on price tells us only one thing: a lot of energy traders are scared, er, spitless.
29 posted on 07/14/2005 10:55:02 PM PDT by SAJ
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To: SierraWasp

Bush's fault and when did Karl Rove know about this?


30 posted on 07/14/2005 10:58:11 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (The civilized world must win WW IV/the Final Crusade and destroy Jihadism!)
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To: SAJ

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."


31 posted on 07/14/2005 11:06:32 PM PDT by need_a_screen_name
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To: Lazamataz
But a Max Max / Road Warrior scenario is not in our future.

It's still fun to daydream about :)

32 posted on 07/14/2005 11:10:16 PM PDT by wingnutx (Seabees Can Do!)
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To: Ann Archy

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.


33 posted on 07/14/2005 11:23:45 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Lazamataz

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.


34 posted on 07/14/2005 11:29:59 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Ann Archy

And that is a fact that has been just recent brought to light.


35 posted on 07/14/2005 11:32:46 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Government is running amuck)
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To: Lazamataz

Does anyone have a chart with bollinger bands?


36 posted on 07/14/2005 11:35:37 PM PDT by bvw
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To: Doe Eyes
Go down to Houston. Refineries in Texas City, Pasadena, Channelview, League City, La Marque, all simply don't have room to grow. They are boxed in between neighborhoods and Galveston Bay.

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.

37 posted on 07/14/2005 11:42:42 PM PDT by jonascord (What is better than the wind at 6 O'clock on the 600 yard line?)
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To: Lazamataz
Re: "We're not all gonna die!!!!"

That's easy for you to say...

38 posted on 07/14/2005 11:44:03 PM PDT by sonofatpatcher2 (Texas, Love & a .45-- What more could you want, campers? };^)
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To: Lazamataz

The only problem is....... the effect of hurricanes passing through.


39 posted on 07/14/2005 11:47:24 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: Trident/Delta

Are you still out there? Care to comment?


40 posted on 07/14/2005 11:49:32 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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