If you're wringing your hands over the prospect of having to drive an electric car a few decades down the road, maybe you can take heart in BP's announcement that it has turned up a large oilfield just off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe.
BP believes the field holds at least 3 billion barrels of oil and says it could recover 500 million using today's extraction technology. This is one of the largest oil discoveries in recent years.
Getting the oil out won't be exactly turnkey or inexpensive, though, as the oilfield is covered by 7,000 feet of ocean water and another 30,000 feet of sea floor.
But the big advantage of this deposit is that it's in U.S. territory, rather than some other country that might not want a big company drilling into its sea floor and walking away with the oil.
Financial Times (sub.req)
zoomzoomn says:
12:01 PM, 09/ 2/09
So, gas prices are going to drop now, right? Oh, wait! There's a tropical depression forming off the tip of Africa that might actually find it's way to the gulf. Nevermind.
ctpax says:
12:03 PM, 09/ 2/09
Yaaay! Go Oil!
the_big_al says:
12:06 PM, 09/ 2/09
all i have to say is DRILL DRILL DRILL! and maybe take some of those enviromentalists with you and you drill and...
iskch says:
12:47 PM, 09/ 2/09
"BP believes" I love the big oil companies. They use the "believe" quite often and at the end is just like a big-o-fart. Drilling is very expensive and risky. You win or loose big time. 20 yrs. working for oil is like a roller coaster ride.
togetherinpari says:
12:52 PM, 09/ 2/09
Given America's current oil consumption of 20,580,000 barrels of oil per day, that would carry us another 24 and 1/3 days. Geepers! Almost a month! That's just swell.
Of course, if we all bought Chevy Volts, we could tell the Arabs to eat their oil.
hondacura4 says:
02:07 PM, 09/ 2/09
Anything for a profit.
jederino says:
03:20 PM, 09/ 2/09
^^Profit is great, so long as you do it by serving people on a fair playing field.
greenpony says:
03:37 PM, 09/ 2/09
Let's just pass legislation that everyone except me has to fuel their vehicles with something other than petroleum. That would postpone things for a few more years, I'd think.
eventhorizon1 says:
03:55 PM, 09/ 2/09
Its not like we CANT find oil anymore, its more like we SHOULDNT. Its time to move forward to an alternative that allows us to give the one-fingered-salute to the oil barons.
empowah says:
04:27 PM, 09/ 2/09
Peak oil discovery was more than 20 years ago. It's not like the UAE is investing in tourism just for fun..
dbauer2000 says:
05:33 PM, 09/ 2/09
to By togetherinpariAuthor Profile Page on September 2, 2009 12:52 PM
I think you might have your numbers off a little. 20 millions of barrels per day / 5 billion barrels is 250 days. Not that its going to matter in the long run, just sayin'.
cwc1 says:
05:37 PM, 09/ 2/09
Oil has unique properties which make it suitable for so many things beyond energy. All of the supposed alternative energy sources have some significant drawbacks, so the world will continue to use petroleum for a lot of years into the future. And there are some geological studies and theories that question whether the amount of oil in the earth is really finite. There are huge amounts of it still in the earth; it's just in areas that are harder and more expensive to get.
Few of the alternative energy sources are truly practical, as electrics need a source of energy to create the electricity and fuel cells need a source of energy to extract the hydrogen. When, and If, battery technology improves to the degree that huge amounts of electricity could be stored (that could come from wind or solar, when the wind is blowing and when the sun is out), only then can we say we have renewable energy.
jederino says:
12:44 PM, 09/ 3/09
^^I'm assuming that if all of this oil is used, more carbon is released to the atmosphere that was previously buried. I doubt that more plant mass could offset the additional carbon mined out of the earth, or could it?