"Captain Exxon" may be gearing up to plunder the Gulf of Mexico, but she's a small fishing fleet compared to the "drilling armada" Petrobras is forging. Look at the chart above: the sea monkeys deep below must be popping their eye balls out like bubbles, terrified of the monstrous, mechanical leviathans above; they must be freezing in the deep of petrified fear, watching long mechanical straws seep oil from its safe bastion. What's next? Hydrocarbons from Saturn's moon, Titan? Lol - hopefully, we'll have moved our collective common sense far beyond goo by then, and up to more enlightened forms of energy; for we deserve peak's retribution if we don't (of course peak will never occur if morons keep forecasting it:)).Below is an excerpt of Brazil's master plan for crude dominance. Be in awe, or live in fear:
Accomplishing this rise partly through increased exploration, appraisal and development drilling, Petrobras has a massive amount of deepwater and
ultra-deepwater rigs contracted and working for the company now through 2013.
Starting from April 2009 and looking forward through 2013, Petrobras has contracted no less than 34 semisubs and drillships. In fact, the yearly averages of floaters contracted by Petrobras range from 39 rigs in 2009 to 47 rigs in 2010, 48 rigs in 2011, 53 rigs in 2012, and 52 rigs in 2013. The future rig counts portray the biggest increases in number of rigs between 2009 and 2010 with a 20% rise in average rigs contracted, followed by an increase of 11% in average rigs contracted between 2011 and 2012. Petrobras has the most floaters under contract in July and August of 2012, with 58 deepwater and ultra-deepwater rigs.
This commitment to drilling in the next five years is in stark contrast to super-majors BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell. While Petrobras is beefing up its rig count over the coming years, each of these companies has contracted substantially fewer floaters.
Over the same time period, BP contracted the most deepwater and ultra-deepwater rigs in 2009, with an average of 11 floaters contracted to work for the British company for the remainder of 2009. The number of rigs contracted by BP drops dramatically through the next five years, with a low of five rigs contracted for the majority of 2013. Furthermore, Chevron has more rigs working for the remainder of 2009, but that number drops, as well. Although the remainder of 2009 averages 11 rigs, Chevron drops to a low of four rigs in 2014. ExxonMobil is similar with an average of 5 rigs contracted for the remainder of 2009 and those contracts dropping off to a low of one rig in 2013. Shell starts off the strongest of the bunch with an average of 15 floaters through the remainder of 2009, but its numbers also dwindle to a low of two rigs by the end of 2013.
Additionally, Petrobras has contracted the most newbuild rigs of any operator. Out of the 88 deepwater and ultra-deepwater floaters that are currently being built or are slated to be built, 59 have contracts executed on them -- and Petrobras holds the contracts on 29* of those newbuilds, representing nearly 50%.
You won't have to sacfice your first-born to get Brazilian oil...
Solidifying the company's practiced theory of rising to the top through investments during economic downturns, the CEO of Petrobras, Jose Sergio Gabrielli confirmed that the company believes drilling in its sub-salt basins is a low risk.
Speaking at a Brazilian congressional public hearing on March 25, 2009, Gabrielli claimed that sub-salt exploration and production was commercially viable for Petrobras even with crude prices ranging between $40 and $50 a barrel. "We've found oil in 16 of the 16 wells we've drilled," Gabrielli simply stated.
You guys are role-models.
- Brewskie
PETROBAS OFFERS THIN EXPLANATION
ReplyDeletePetrobas is in the news, Tupi Oil Imperiled as Price Drop Unravels Energy Plan(Bloomberg) March 31 2009.
But Petrobas' explanation of the oil deposits' origin is complete baloney.
From the Bloomberg report:
"As Petrobras geologists explain it, the oil buried under the salt comes from the remains of a 130-million-year-old lake. The lake was formed as Africa and South America, once part of a supercontinent dubbed Gondwana, slowly separated, sending the lake and its rich layer of organic sediments to the bottom of what became the Atlantic Ocean, where they were gradually covered with sea salt.
Pressure, heat, time and the shifting of tectonic plates turned the sediment into oil."
Even the reporter lets slip a note of reservation about Petrobas's story: "As Petrobras geologists explain it..."
The geology of Brazil's offshore oil area doesn't match with Petrobas's explanation. 130 million years ago the area was at the bottom of the opening and spreading Atlantic rift between South America and Africa, this rift would continue opening until the present and is known, today, as the South Atlantic ocean.
Never was there a "lake" off present day's Brazil. Rather, without the deep rifts between the continents, sea levels were higher with shallow seas covering large parts of the continents (fossil fish, claims, and sea creatures have been found on the continents.
Salt does not build up on the bottom of oceans, certainly not to a 2- kilometer-thick layer of salt. Salt builds up below the bottom of the ocean as a result of Supercritical water processes where the salt drops out of solution.
This salt layer then acts to trap hydrocarbons as they rise from below the salt.
Anaconda,
ReplyDeleteThere's too much oil, buried too deeply under too much salt, resting in too hot of an underground environment to exist - at least according to fossil fuel theory. 100+ billion barrels?
Still, the geologist pulled an understandable, but unfortunate copout of an explanation to satisfy, and spoon-feed the masses. Besides, abiotic oil remains controversial with the public at large (at least with those who've heard plus understand it, which is likely a minority), and especially, the scientific community itself. It's unlikely Bloomerg.com endorse abiotic oil without scientific consensus.
I saw OIM's bit on microbes converting water and CO2 into methane. This reminds me of the experimental processes scientists are doing now, where they use sunlight to convert CO2 into methane and gasoline. Good stuff is coming.
Considering how high-tech offshore oil exploration and drilling has become, considering the advancements yet to come, our grandchildren will see these as wanton and barbaric.