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Title: Rig Sinks, Showing Dangers of Deep-Water Drilling
Source:
Bloomberg.com
URL Source: http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2 ... rs-of-deep-water-drilling.html
Published: Apr 22, 2010
Author: staff
Post Date: 2010-04-22 15:26:38 by buckeroo
Keywords: None
Views: 1538
Comments: 15
Oil and natural-gas explorers drilling deeper than the height of Mt. Everest are risking pressure surges like the one this week that may have triggered the deadliest U.S. rig accident in 23 years. Energy companies are delving 10 times deeper than a decade ago in the search for untapped reservoirs of oil and gas. The threat of pressure surges, or blowouts, that can smash steel equipment and create gushing columns of fire increases as drillers probe ever-deeper into layers of rock, Neal Dingmann, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, said. U.S. Coast Guard rescuers continued the search today for 11 workers who’ve been missing in the Gulf of Mexico since an April 20 explosion and fire aboard Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon rig, which the company said may have been caused by a blowout. Transocean had leased the vessel to BP Plc. for use on an 18,000-foot (5,486 meter) well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from shore. “Offshore drilling has always been high risk, but when you talk about wells going to these kinds of depths, the risks go even higher,” Dingmann said in a telephone interview from Houston. “Once you go anywhere below 10,000 feet, all of a sudden the pressure and temperature become a lot more difficult to contend with.” If the 11 missing workers are declared dead, it would be the worst offshore oil-industry accident in U.S. waters since 1987, when a helicopter crashed into a Forest Oil Corp. platform, killing 14 people, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of data from the U.S. Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service. No Warning The Deepwater Horizon burned for more than 30 hours before sinking. Adrian Rose, who oversees Geneva-based Transocean’s quality, health, safety and the environment unit, said yesterday that the disaster unfolded with little or no warning. Michael Kersey told reporters in Kenner, Louisiana that his brother, Jonathan Kersey, 33, was aboard the Deepwater Horizon when it erupted in flames. “He said it was the scariest thing he saw in his life,” Michael Kersey said. Jonathan Kersey was among those who escaped in a life boat, his brother said. The accident may spur calls for tougher oversight and increased regulation of the drilling industry, as well as raise legal risks for companies. BP and Transocean were sued today by the family of Shane Roshto, a roustabout who was thrown overboard by the explosion and who hasn’t been located, according to documents filed in New Orleans federal court. Political Pressure President Barack Obama last month proposed expanding offshore drilling in some U.S. coastal areas. “This accident happened at exactly the wrong time,” Jud Bailey, a Houston-based analyst for Jefferies & Co., said in a telephone interview. “The offshore industry has a good safety record, but this is something environmentalists can grab onto and say, ‘See, this is why you shouldn’t drill.’” Senator Mary L. Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, urged the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, which has authority over oil and gas exploration in federal waters, to “conduct a swift and thorough investigation.” “It is critical that these agencies examine what went wrong and the environmental impact this incident has created,” Landrieu said in a statement. Cote de Mer The minerals agency requires energy producers to inspect wells at least every 30 days during exploration work, John Schiller, chief executive officer of Energy XXI (Bermuda) Ltd., said on a November conference call with investors. Energy XXI, along with partners that included Nexen Inc., spent $75 million to bring a June 2007 blowout at the Cote de Mer field in Louisiana under control. A surge of gas in the 22,261-foot well blew through a device known as a blowout preventer, burying the rig floor in six feet of sand, rock and seashells. No one was injured, the company said. Oilfield-equipment makers such as Ametek Inc. and FMC Technologies Inc. are working to develop hardware that can withstand pressures and temperatures in wells that can plunge more than 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) into the Earth’s crust. “The conditions keep getting worse as they go deeper,” said Brian Ainley, director of business development at Ametek’s Chandler Engineering unit in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Calculating Risks Some companies aren’t willing to risk the danger of a blowout. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s second-largest oil company, abandoned its Blackbeard well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 after the company’s engineers became alarmed over the pressure levels and temperatures almost seven miles beneath the seafloor, Dingmann said. McMoRan Exploration Co. obtained control over Blackbeard in 2007 as part of its $1.1 billion acquisition of offshore assets from Newfield Exploration Co., one of Exxon’s partners in the project. McMoRan of New Orleans extended the well almost 3,000 feet deeper than where Exxon left it. James “Jim Bob” Moffett, co-chairman of McMoRan, told investors on a January conference call that the risks of dealing with higher-pressure deposits may be worthwhile because those fields have more oil and gas packed into each square yard of rock. Transocean fell 50 cents to $89.87 at 2:47 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. BP dropped 11.8 pence to 636.40 pence. To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Carroll in Chicago at Jcarroll8@bloomberg.net; Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net; Katarzyna Klimasinska in Kenner, Louisiana, at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net.
Poster Comment: With all the gushers springing up around the world, I wonder why anyone would commit to development of oil based products a mile deep into the ocean?
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#1. To: buckeroo, groundresonance (#0)
With abiotic oil and the entire core of the Earth made up of oil, why would anybody in their right mind bother exploring for oil anyway? Oil wells fill themselves back up, right? Right?
I'm considering floating derivatives to neighbors at least 1/2 mile away but still in same subdivision that they'll find natural gas on their property with only a few feet of drilling. Can you round up anyone wanting to go long on this venture?
“we were respected as the most disinterested and charitable nation in the world.” - Robert A. Taft
I suppose I'd be willing to kick in 10 or 12 trillion dollars. Or do you need more? Edit: BTW, that's Zim Dollars, or about tree-fiddy US.
I guess now what we'll need is some hand-held drills with auger bits. And plenty of "No Smoking" signs.
“we were respected as the most disinterested and charitable nation in the world.” - Robert A. Taft
Absolutely. There is no question about that at all.... in fact the stuff just oozes out of the ground everywhere around the planet. These idiots that spend billions in oil exploration and development over a mile below sea level don't have a clue about the truth.
"Sarah "Kiss my Torah" Palin" -- Jethro Tull, circa 2010-04-14
Can I get my picture taken with you sometime?
“we were respected as the most disinterested and charitable nation in the world.” - Robert A. Taft
You really need to take a snapshot with the copied folks.....
"Sarah "Kiss my Torah" Palin" -- Jethro Tull, circa 2010-04-14
He won't send me a picture. "With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." Click on my nick.
"Sarah "Kiss my Torah" Palin" -- Jethro Tull, circa 2010-04-14
Yeah, been there, done that.
"With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." I posted this thread about two weeks ago ahead of the tragedy that you think is an issue... You folks have your heads up your respective asses.
"Sarah "Kiss my Torah" Palin" -- Jethro Tull, circa 2010-04-14
Buck, just because other folks aren't taken in by fairy tales about "peak oil" and "global warming" doesn't mean they have their heads up their rectums. Some people just don't believe stuff that gullible folks get taken in by. Be sure to send Al and the heads of the oil companies a few extra dollars if you can spare them and tell them how you feel their pain.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana lies a mostly submerged mountain, the top of which is known as Eugene Island. The portion underwater is an eerie-looking, sloping tower jutting up from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, with deep fissures and perpendicular faults which spontaneously spew natural gas. A significant reservoir of crude oil was discovered nearby in the late '60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330 was busily producing about 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil. By the late '80s, the platform's production had slipped to less than 4,000 barrels per day, and was considered pumped out. Done. Suddenly, in 1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves which had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the '70s, were recalculated at 400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological age of the new oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the '70s. Analysis of seismic recordings revealed the presence of a "deep fault" at the base of the Eugene Island reservoir which was gushing up a river of oil from some deeper and previously unknown source. Similar results were seen at other Gulf of Mexico oil wells. Similar results were found in the Cook Inlet oil fields in Alaska. Similar results were found in oil fields in Uzbekistan. Similarly in the Middle East, where oil exploration and extraction have been underway for at least the last 20 years, known reserves have doubled. Currently there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 680 billion barrels of Middle East reserve oil. Creating that much oil would take a big pile of dead dinosaurs and fermenting prehistoric plants. Could there be another source for crude oil? Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. if there's so much oil everywhere, why go to all the trouble to drill 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana? ...why not drill on dry land, where it's so much cheaper and safer to drill? why has global crude oil production been flat for the last five years? if we are approaching or have reached peak oil, and you wanted to control the world ---as per the neocons' "benevolent global hegemony"--- would it make sense for you to start wars in the biggest remaining oil patch, the middle east? ...how would you go about starting those wars? ...would an operation like 9/11 be a surefire way of starting your wars, given that you're in control of the government, the media, the investigation, and the findings of the investigation?
why, after so much effort and money expended in the gulf of mexico, is the gulf of mexico only producing 1.3 million barrels of oil a day? ...especially seeing as how america is burning 19 million barrels a day, and is importing most of that oil? gomex map, 2957 x 1655
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#2. To: Esso (#1)
#3. To: Dakmar (#2)
(Edited)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#4. To: Esso (#3)
#5. To: Esso (#1)
Oil wells fill themselves back up, right?
#6. To: buckeroo (#5)
These idiots that spend billions in oil exploration and development over a mile below sea level don't have a clue about the truth.
#7. To: Dakmar, James Deffenbach, Original_Intent (#6)
#8. To: Dakmar, buckeroo (#6)
Can I get my picture taken with you sometime?
James Madison, Letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831
#9. To: farmfriend (#8)
#10. To: buckeroo (#9)
Click on my nick.
James Madison, Letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831
#11. To: Dakmar, James Deffenbach, Original_Intent, all (#7)
#12. To: buckeroo (#11)
You folks have your heads up your respective asses.
Lord Acton
#13. To: Esso (#1)
Lord Acton
#14. To: James Deffenbach (#13)
About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana
#15. To: James Deffenbach (#13)
(Edited)
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