BP talks up 'giant' Gulf of Mexico oil find

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

BP talks up 'giant' Gulf of Mexico oil find
The company said much more drilling appraisal work was needed before the field's commerciality could be guaranteed
Terry Macalister, industrial correspondent guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 2 September 2009 14.14 BST

BP is threatening to confound pessimists worried about dwindling new oil supplies by announcing a "giant" discovery in the Gulf of Mexico which some believe could be as large as the Forties, the biggest field ever found in the North Sea.

The oil group, already the largest producer of hydrocarbons in the US, said its Tiber Prospect in 4,100 feet of water was particularly exciting because it promised to open up a whole new deepwater province in the Gulf.

Shares in BP raced ahead 4% to 539p making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 despite the company saying much more drilling appraisal work was needed before its commerciality could be guaranteed.

But the company also admitted that Tiber was bigger than the prospect on the nearby Kaskida field found in 2006 which has around 3bn barrels of oil reserves in place. Industry experts said Tiber might be as large as Forties which has 4bn barrels in place.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/02/bp-oil-find-gulf-of-mexico

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BP announces discovery of "giant" oil field in Gulf of Mexico
Business News
Sep 2, 2009, 11:36 GMT

London - Oil company British Petroleum (BP) Wednesday announced the discovery of a giant new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico in what it described as one of the 'deepest wells ever drilled in the oil and gas industry.'

The find was made at BP's Tiber well, which was drilled to a depth of more than 10,000 metres and is located some 400 kilometres south-east of the city of Houston in Texas.

BP said it was now looking to verify the size and potential of the oil discovery, its second major find in that area of the Gulf of Mexico.

~snip~
Although this is also still under appraisal, BP said it believes Kaskida has a three billion barrel capacity and confirmed the new find was potentially in 'the same league.'

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1498804.php/BP-announces-discovery-of-giant-oil-field-in-Gulf-of-Mexico

[orwell]

1. 4 Bn barrels...

...isn't that around 50 days global supply?

[WestSeattle2]

3. 85 million bpd x 50 = 4.2 billion....I think the real story here is

the depths we're going to, to find oil.

[FarCenter]

5. Week ago the US was processing a little under 14.5 million bpd

So 4,000 / 14.5 = 276 days supply for the US if all the oil went here.

World consumption might be down from 85 million bpd, since the US is down from around 18 to 14.5. High prices and the economic slump have resulted in some production cuts.

[hatrack]

2. .8 Miles of ocean, seven miles of rock to drill through . . .

Good luck turning a profit on that particular patch.

[earthside]

4. $50 a barrel to produce?

That's just a crazy guess to highlight the point.

Not much here to get too excited about.

By the time any meaningful amount of that oil gets to the surface, Cantarell will be virtually gone, meaning we're still going into a deep petroleum deficit.

[lapfog_1]

6. Posted this in the now locked dup thread...

Cantarell, the super giant oil field owned by Pemex, has PRODUCED well over 12 billion barrels already. This field, when fully exploited, will produce less than 1 Billion barrels. Depending on how fast they pump it (and studies show that going slower produces more total oil than going fast), this field won't even account for the year over year DROP in Cantarell output.

If we stay on oil for another 100 years (assuming that global warming caused by fossil fuels is a myth, which it isn't), we need to find a Cantarell sized super giant every other year (or better). We have found 3 in the last 40 years.

So we need to find 10 more Keathley Canyons every other year, or 5 every year. And that's just to maintain, not to provide MORE energy for emerging markets like China and India.