BP makes "giant" oil find in Gulf of Mexico

[SavageOrangeJug]

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major BP Plc said it has made an oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, which analysts believe could contain over 1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, reaffirming the Gulf's strategic importance to the industry.

BP said in a statement on Wednesday that it had made the "giant" find at its Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102, by drilling one of the deepest wells ever sunk by the industry.

Further appraisal will be required to ascertain the size of volumes of oil present, but a spokesman said the find should be bigger than its Kaskida discovery which has over 3 billion barrels of oil in place.

Estimates of recoverable reserves range from around 20 percent of oil in place.

"Assuming reserves in place of 4 billion barrels and a 35 percent recovery rate, BP's proven reserves .. would rise by 868 million barrels -- equivalent to 4.8 percent of the group's 18.14 billion barrels of proven reserves," Aymeric De-Villaret, oil analyst at Societe Generale said in a research note

SOURCE: BP makes "giant" oil find in Gulf of Mexico

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

American environmentalists and communists cannot stand by and let this news get out...

 

[IPorange]

Ok.


America uses 7.6 times that much in one year alone. And that's just America. A billion barrels of oil is a drop in the bucket compared to total global consumption. I know it seems like a big number, but it really isn't as much as it seems.


My math is based on the fact that the US uses 20,680,000 barrels of oil a day(Oil consumption (most recent) by country). Multiply that by 365.25. You get several billion barrels.

 

[rjd970]

This is an important issue and it is a shame that it has been hijacked by the environmental nuts. The simple truth is oil isn't infinite and it is just going to get more scarce, harder to find, and more expensive. Even if we drill everywhere in world it will run out in time.

Sooner or later the term "green technologies" needs to be replaced with "sustainable energy technologies". In the short term nuclear power is a solution but that does nothing to address that global transportation infrastructures and technologies is still oil based.

 

[tm3]

America uses 7.6 times that much in one year alone. And that's just America. A billion barrels of oil is a drop in the bucket compared to total global consumption. I know it seems like a big number, but it really isn't as much as it seems.


My math is based on the fact that the US uses 20,680,000 barrels of oil a day(Oil consumption (most recent) by country). Multiply that by 365.25. You get several billion barrels.

that was my first question. thanks for ciphering it out.

 

[therealUT]

Ok.


America uses 7.6 times that much in one year alone. And that's just America. A billion barrels of oil is a drop in the bucket compared to total global consumption. I know it seems like a big number, but it really isn't as much as it seems.


My math is based on the fact that the US uses 20,680,000 barrels of oil a day(Oil consumption (most recent) by country). Multiply that by 365.25. You get several billion barrels.

So, your argument seems to be that we should not drill for this oil because we would use it. Am I correct in perceiving this?

 

[IPorange]

So, your argument seems to be that we should not drill for this oil because we would use it. Am I correct in perceiving this?

Err, no. My argument is that it wasn't really a "giant" find. My implication is that if supply is finite (it is, whether there's twice as much as we know about in the Earth, or even 10 times as much. It's still a fixed amount) and global demand continues to grow and grow, eventually there's going to be serious shortfalls.


I never said anything about not drilling for that oil.

 

[VolsNSkinsFan]

USA uses 20 Million Barrels a day so this equals 50 days worth

 

[voltnh]

This is an important issue and it is a shame that it has been hijacked by the environmental nuts. The simple truth is oil isn't infinite and it is just going to get more scarce, harder to find, and more expensive. Even if we drill everywhere in world it will run out in time. QUOTE]

not necessarily. fossil fuels (i.e. crude oil) are created through a very time consuming process that involves organic matter decomposing and influenced by tremendous levels of heat, pressure, and time (millions of years). Just because we discovered oil and have only been using it for little more than a century, doesn't mean this natural process stopped.

not to mention the "heavy oils" and oil shale that we currently aren't utilizing...

 

[TennTradition]

I think that we can all agree that our rate of consumption far exceeds the rate of creation of oil, though. As long as that is the case, then the resource will continue to get more scarce, harder to find, etc.

Your points about tar sands and other unconventional forms of oil are good ones in that these might delay scarcity issues, but there is only so much out there and we are certainly consuming it faster than the processes required to make it naturally can be carried out.

 

[rjd970]

I think that we can all agree that our rate of consumption far exceeds the rate of creation of oil, though. As long as that is the case, then the resource will continue to get more scarce, harder to find, etc.

Your points about tar sands and other unconventional forms of oil are good ones in that these might delay scarcity issues, but there is only so much out there and we are certainly consuming it faster than the processes required to make it naturally can be carried out.

You beat me to it TT.

What's your opinion of this algae they claim produces viable oil?

 

[TennTradition]

You beat me to it TT.

What's your opinion of this algae they claim produces viable oil?

I have heard of making both diesel and actual 'oil' (must contain some even higher highercarbons than the biodiesel) from algae. I think that biodiesel from algae does have some potential. Once thing that I worry about is it would seem to me that the growth rate of algae is directly proportional to the sunlight it receives. So, this is a process that would seem to scale as surface area, not volume, which means suffering economies of scale. Also, it means a lot of area for production. However, if it can give us appreciable quantities of a desired product, we might give up the land.