$1.5 Trillion In Oil Discovered In Gulf Of Mexico

Good news for the oil industry and big business! Nearly $1.5 trillion worth of crude oil was just discovered through drilling pipes in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Ryan, a geologist working with Texaco ...
$1.5 Trillion In Oil Discovered In Gulf Of Mexico
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  • Good news for the oil industry and big business! Nearly $1.5 trillion worth of crude oil was just discovered through drilling pipes in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Ryan, a geologist working with Texaco Inc. had no way of predicting that he would be changing the future of energy that exists in the Gulf of Mexico when he set it in place for this well to be built. In fact, it just broke the world record for deep-water drilling.

    The opinions on U.S. offshore geology have profoundly changed, due to recent studies. This year, we saw the Gulf of Mexico become one of the most promising frontier oil plays in the world, according to Business Week. This is certainly good for the business of oil, but is it really helpful for the country to keep finding and funding more oil?

    The project known as BAHA, started in 1996 by Texaco and its partners, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Amoco Corp. and Mobil Corp., was a dry hole. Normally, this would have been game over, but instead BAHA’s discovery of oil-rich sands was the first step toward unlocking this shocking amount of oil. Investment is pouring in, with 42 drilling rigs operating in 1,000 or more feet of water as of Sept. 9. That is 35 percent more than what we had just four years ago. Chevron remains to be the powerhouse in the area, with five rigs currently drilling there.

    There is plenty more available too, with about 15 million barrels estimated of recoverable oil that remains to be found in the Lower Tertiary. Geologist Robert Ryan was quoted saying “What catches our attention is the potential, right in our backyard, and it’s still in its infancy.” Ryan jumped at the idea, wanting to use as much of the oil as he could. Another important breakthrough has been new seismic tools that allow companies to see through layers of salt deposits. These were previously blocked their vision, and are now able to open up new parts of the formation to exploration, reports the Washington Post.

    An example of an oil rig in Gulf of Mexico

    The cost of drilling and the risk that is attached along with it continue to be a problem for oil companies and particularly those that are opposed to the drilling process altogether. Some people feel that drilling for oil is already an outdated process and that companies should be looking into more renewable sources of energy. All of this oil has just been found and it seems that we continue to find more, but as well know, it will be depleted eventually. Oil may be profitable right now, but educate yourselves on the issue, because it is harmful to the environment in addition to not being sustainable compared with other sources like wind and solar. Everyone remembers the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just 3 years ago right?

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