by far the biggest expense in establishing an offshore oil or gas field is the helicopter. you need a competent twin-engine machine to go two or three hundred miles offshore, because if an engine quits out there somewhere, there's not much likelihood of anyone happening by, so far out in the weeds, to drag your ass out of the ocean... so it's nice to have a spare engine.
anyhow, once you get out to the place you've decided to work, all you do is sprinkle pixie dust from the helicopter onto the site... pixie dust can be collected from the hyperactive imaginations of peak oil deniers, abiotic oil believers, chemtrail enthusiasts, and global warming deniers...
so you sprinkle the pixie dust, and presto! ...like magic the oil abiotically gushes up out of the bowels of the earth and abiotically collects in places where you can find it.
the drillships and/or platforms also appear like magic, and they start drilling and pumping.
on the remote chance the pixie dust doesnt quite cut it, you can call for help from extraterrestrial crop circle makers, but that's kind of a pain seeing as how they're usually booked solid for six or eight months in advance.
what about the pipelines back to shore? ...you may well ask...
well, just make sure your helicopter is equipped with a chemtrail dispenser... you simply sprinkle pixie dust as you're on your way out to the job site, and pipelines will materialize, just like magic.
so, totalling up the expense for one of these expeditions, we can figure on maybe three or four hours of helicopter time at three thousand dollars an hour, for a total expense of maybe ten grand.
pretty cool, huh? ...especially when you'll get maybe eighty bucks for every barrel of oil you pump, and you might pump a hundred thousand barrels of oil a day.
The Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase oil production over the next several years, largely due to ultra-deepwater field development. The MMS believes oil production could reach 1.8 MMb/d up from 1.3 MMb/d in 2008, but gas production is expected to decline over the next four years. "The Gulf of Mexico is one of the single largest suppliers of oil and gas to the US market," explained MMS GOM Regional Director, Lars Herbst. "With continued interest and activity in deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico, we anticipate that oil production will continue to be strong with a large portion of production coming from projects in deeper water depths."
In the last 10 years, significant discoveries have been made in the ultra-deep waters of the GOM. In 2009 operators announced 14 deepwater discoveries, 11 of which are in 3,000 ft of water or more. In the timeline below, we lay out some of the key deepwater discoveries addressed later in this report.
Analysis: U.S. to Reap Fruits of Deepwater Labor rigzone... more picture and text at original article
please keep in mind that these guys are projecting production of 1.8 million barrels a day, and the US is using 20 million barrels a day... we need to send them a couple sixpacks of beer and a couple tons of pixie dust, to improve their outlook.