Plenty of Oil—Just Drill Deeper

Business Week ^ | SEPTEMBER 6, 2006 | Mark Morrison

[ChildOfThe60s]

SOME ARE SKEPTICAL. Matthew R. Simmons, chairman of an energy investment bank bearing his name and one of the leading proponents of Peak Oil, is sticking to his guns. "One well tells you almost nothing," he says. Simmons says the deep wells are "unbelievably expensive" and often fall short of expectations. "The history of the industry is full of disappointment."

I suspect this fellow has done pretty well in the current speculation that has dominated the market. i.e. he has a vested interest in talking up peak oil.

[thackney]

And I am not confident the middle east was under the ocean for hundreds of millions of years.

I used to live in Yemen, the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The area I was in, the south side of the Rub' al Khali (empty quarter) was very rocky. On the surface was a crust of rock that was broken up into small (< 1 foot) pieces. These rocks would "ring" as they hit against each other because they were formed under pressure of being under the ocean.

[Oberon]

Sorry, but this does nothing to enhance the concept of abiotic theory of oil except to those who do not understand geology.

I think you're beginning to run into a heuristic problem here with the phrase "understand geology." A more precise way of saying it is "understand current geological theory," which is really the best we can do. Our "understanding" of geology is only as good as the latest model.

[thackney]

No, it is more basic than that. The claim that because of the depth, it is doubtful it came from organic matter is only from a lack of understanding of very basic geology. I'm not claiming that it proves in anyway the source of the oil, but the depth does not lend to either theory.

[beezdotcom]

It should be obvious to most people that oil shouldn't HAVE to come from biomass - hydrocarbons in various forms are indicated all over the universe. However, people seem to get their panties in a wad if you suggest that oil could be anything but a 'fossil fuel'. The funny thing is that as oil is found deeper and deeper, the theories explaining how it still MUST be fossil fuel get more and more convoluted.

[Oberon]

All right.

[DungeonMaster]

Dead plankton doesn't go store itself for a million years, it disolves.

[NormB]

No your wrong.

You see the earth is like anything else.
Made up of Carbs, Protien and fat.
Carbs would be like trees and stuff.
Protien would be the living things like dogs and cats.
Water is water of course, and then there is fat.
The oil is the fat of the earth.

[dirtboy]

Simmons says the deep wells are "unbelievably expensive" and often fall short of expectations.

6,000 bbls a day is hardly short of expectations.

[91B]

There was a really fascinating article I read some time ago which talked about cellular life existing down in the depths of the earth. Of course if this is so, then it isn't so much what has been pressed down over time, but what has been rising up.

[RightWhale]

The Peak Oil Theory is about easy oil. The easy oil part is usually ignored by all. Easy oil would be oil of quality not only cheap to refine but also cheap to produce. Oil from seven miles down would not be quite so easy as oil near the surface. The cost of the oil is the issue, not running out. If running out is a problem there is Titan which seems to have oceans of hydrocarbon.

[thackney]

I agree with the idea of easy oil, oil we would produce 40 years ago, is diminishing in being found. But technology advances such as economic deep depths and drilling miles horizontally have opened up a lot of affordable oil. And there are still large areas that are not really explored for their resources yet. Alaska is a prime example.

[RightWhale]

Technology is advancing most impressively. I can hardly imagine drilling five miles down under the water of the Gulf of Mexico, and not only that but drilling some miles in all directions from a single drill rig in the water without the lines getting tangled.

[thackney]

Have you read about the drilling rig BP is having developed for Liberty field? The target is to exceed 8 miles horizontal.

[Sam Cree]

I don't begin to know whether petroleum must come from the remains of living or dead entities, but it makes sense that it could come from both.

For instance, here in Southern Florida, the bedrock is alway limestone. Some of it is organic, corals and bryazoa, while the rest is oolite, completely inorganic. But their appearance is nearly identical, as is their composition, to the best of my belief.

[RightWhale]

I have trouble drilling a hole through a 2x4 and keeping it straight. Do they have some kind of Radio Shack radio control steering device with camera on the deep end? I have neglected this technology completely.

[thackney]

Part of the process I find interesting is Mud pulse telemetry for sending/receiving information from the drill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_pulse_telemetry

[chaosagent]

Bookmarked

[Casio]

but also think that alternative sources of energy are just beyond the horizon and oil may become an obsolete energy source in a short period of time.

Like what, if I may ask? We know nuclear fission, we wish we knew nuclear fusion, everything else, any new energy can come only from the Sun. Currently we have a negligible percentage efficiency solar cells, for very expensive. Unless some new physical law emerges we never heard of, I sure don't see any alternative source of energy on the horizon.

Gabor

[Casio]

If running out is a problem there is Titan which seems to have oceans of hydrocarbon.

And how do you plan to bring it here? At this point our space technology is stuck at the "does the foam stick enough" level, in order to get 7-8 people 250 miles from the surface of the Earth. By the time we can solve mass hydrocarbon transportation from Titan, we better find some other source of energy.

People don't seem to realize, how very stuck we are with the space research.

Gabor