BP Makes "Giant" Oil Find in Gulf of Mexico

[chitown]

bp-makes-giant-oil-find-in-gulf-of-mexico: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

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.
BP, the biggest oil producer in the U.S. and biggest leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico, has a 62 percent working interest in the block, while Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras owns 20 percent and U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips owns 18 percent.
Iain Armstrong, analyst at Brewin Dolphin, said the discovery may have implications for long-term oil prices.
"It will ease concerns about peak oil because it shows there is life left in these mature areas," he said, adding that it could be the second half of the next decade before the find is producing.
The discovery also bodes well for other exploration in that part of the Gulf of Mexico, including at Royal Dutch Shell's nearby Great White field, Jason Kenny, oil analyst at ING in Edinburgh, said.
BP shares, which had been trading slightly down ahead of the statement, closed up 4.3 percent at 541 pence, outperforming a 1.75 percent rise in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index.
The Gulf of Mexico has become increasingly important to Western oil majors as oil rich-countries such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia reserve their richest fields to be developed by their state-owned oil companies.
The Gulf is especially attractive because it offers high profit margins, due to relatively low taxation compared to countries such as Russia and Nigeria, and because of the low political risk.
As nearer-shore discoveries dry up, companies have pushed further out to sea, which has forced them to develop new technologies to detect and extract the oil.
The prospects for massive discoveries in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico is also good news for U.S. politicians' ambitions to reduce the country's reliance on imported oil, although oil executives doubt the U.S. is capable of becoming self sufficient in oil.

[English Noodles]

Interesting.

[sabang]

Surprised that BP is the biggest oil producer in the US actually.
Anyhow, nice find- and there is a lot more deep water exploration going on.

[Sakeopete]

Surprised that BP is the biggest oil producer in the US actually.
Anyhow, nice find- and there is a lot more deep water exploration going on.

Yes there is I'm on a exploratory deep water well for Exxon Mobil atm in Libya.

[Dan]

Assuming reserves in place of 4 billion barrels and a 35 percent recovery rate,

That's enough oil to keep the world going for a little over two weeks. Not very exciting.

[tuktukdriver]

How much more of this can our planet handle? Take this ocean...Take this atmosphere....

[blackgang]

Well the way I see it, it is great and some of the folks still working are making a shit load of money,, one of my neighbors is an old retired offshore superintendant, and his son is on a rin in the Gulf, lives with his mex wife in Mexico during time ashore and is making a paltry $2300.00 US a day in charge of the ROVS in the deep water drilling.
Fuck and I thought I was doing well at $700 a day.

[Happyman]

paltry $2300.00 US a day

Thanks BG !

That really made my day when I realised he made more in a week than Mrs Betty Windsor ( bless you m'aam) gives me in a year as a pension !!!

[Muadib]

BP used the company I work for to drill the well... World's deepest well at 35,050 feet in over 4,130 feet of water... Ultra-deepwater drilling is making oil fields available that were never accessible before... Good stuff...


The following news item was recently released:

ZUG, SWITZERLAND—Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) today announced that its ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rig Deepwater Horizon recently drilled the deepest oil and gas well ever while working for BP and its co-owners on the Tiber well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Working with BP, the Transocean crews on the Deepwater Horizon drilled the well to 35,050 vertical depth and 35,055 feet measured depth (MD), or more than six miles, while operating in 4,130 feet of water.

“This impressive well depth record reflects the intensive planning and focus on effective operations by BP and the drilling crews of the Deepwater Horizon,” said Robert L. Long, Transocean Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer. “Congratulations to everyone involved.”

These achievements are the latest in Transocean’s history of world and other records dating back to the 1950s. In 2005, the ultra-deepwater drillship Discoverer Spirit set the record for the longest Gulf of Mexico oil and gas well at 34,189 feet, MD. Most recently, the Transocean jackup GSF Rig 127 drilled the industry’s longest extended-reach well in 2008 while working for Maersk Oil Qatar AS at 40,320 feet MD with a 35,770-foot horizontal section. The well was drilled offshore Qatar in 36 days and was incident-free.

Transocean also holds the current world water-depth record of operating in 10,011 feet of water set while working for Chevron in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

[blackgang]

Jesus Christ, and we thought for awhile that it was pretty cool to be drilling in 400 or 500 feet of water.

[Dan]

Ultra-deepwater drilling is making oil fields available that were never accessible before... Good stuff...

I guess you mean 'good' in the sense of 'bad'.

[Agent_Smith]

Ultra-deepwater drilling is making oil fields available that were never accessible before... Good stuff...

Absolutely! Feel the rush...

[Muadib]

Well, until an alternative to fossil fuel is ready for distribution and use by the masses, gasoline & natural gas are the only options... That is unless you think you can piss in the gas tank of your car / bike and make it go...

[Airportwo]

Surprised that BP is the biggest oil producer in the US actually.
Anyhow, nice find- and there is a lot more deep water exploration going on.

BP bought out AMOCO some years back, thats where they got their US interests....

Company I work for are just starting a well in the GOM in 7,350 ' water

[chassamui]

Has it never occured to anyone that all these millions of barrels of oil, will leave very large voids beneath us. A bit like drilling into the brain and removing all the higher level brain cells and expecting everything to function normally afterwards.
Maybe the earth is going to have a massive stroke one day soon.

[Rural Surin]

Has it never occured to anyone that all these millions of barrels of oil, will leave very large voids beneath us. A bit like drilling into the brain and removing all the higher level brain cells and expecting everything to function normally afterwards.
Maybe the earth is going to have a massive stroke one day soon.

...couldn't be soon enough.

[DaffyDuck]

Assuming reserves in place of 4 billion barrels and a 35 percent recovery rate,

That's enough oil to keep the world going for a little over two weeks. Not very exciting.

The world uses 81 million barrels of oil per day -- this is roughly 45 days of oil supply. Nothing to get excited over.

[DaffyDuck]

Has it never occured to anyone that all these millions of barrels of oil, will leave very large voids beneath us. A bit like drilling into the brain and removing all the higher level brain cells and expecting everything to function normally afterwards.
Maybe the earth is going to have a massive stroke one day soon.

Horribly bad analogy (shakes head)

That's why the cavities we remove the oil from are subsequently filled up, usually with water (sinks to the bottom, drives oil to top).

[Dan]

^^ (4000 m barrels * 35 percent recovery) / 85 m barrels per day (when the world was last not in a recession) is 16.47 days.

[MeMock]

So true Dan. The oil companies keep on announcing these 'huge' finds but when you look at it they are nothing. Only a few years to go until there is no oil left at all.....

[chassamui]

Has it never occured to anyone that all these millions of barrels of oil, will leave very large voids beneath us. A bit like drilling into the brain and removing all the higher level brain cells and expecting everything to function normally afterwards.
Maybe the earth is going to have a massive stroke one day soon.

Horribly bad analogy (shakes head)

That's why the cavities we remove the oil from are subsequently filled up, usually with water (sinks to the bottom, drives oil to top).

In case it had escaped your attention, oil and water are different substances and behave differently at depth and under pressure.

[Thetyim]

(4000 m barrels * 35 percent recovery) / 85 m barrels per day (when the world was last not in a recession) is 16.47 days.

Billion has two definitions
Can be a thousand million and can be a million million

[MeMock]

so what you are saying is that it still equals stuff all?

[Airportwo]

Has it never occured to anyone that all these millions of barrels of oil, will leave very large voids beneath us. A bit like drilling into the brain and removing all the higher level brain cells and expecting everything to function normally afterwards.
Maybe the earth is going to have a massive stroke one day soon.

Horribly bad analogy (shakes head)

That's why the cavities we remove the oil from are subsequently filled up, usually with water (sinks to the bottom, drives oil to top).

In case it had escaped your attention, oil and water are different substances and behave differently at depth and under pressure.

Oil, Gas & water all behave the same, or in a similar fashion at depth, when under pressure, its only when you change the pressure that they behave differently - I think

[Agent_Smith]

Well, until an alternative to fossil fuel is ready for distribution and use by the masses,

Alternatives are there, the will to convert is not. Too much profit to just piss away for something as silly as a prosperous future for the grandkiddies.