Sorry, Halfin, this "West Africa" allusion is total bullshit. Your peak oil debunked source quotes the ASPO newsletter statement (references re-evaluation of deepwater sources) and then quotes Big Gav talking about the Gulf of Guinea. Your source then decides with no justification that the ASPO change is due to new discoveries in West Africa.

Let's not be so sloppy, OK? As far as I can see, the reasons for the ASPO re-evaluation remain obscure since I don't know what specific changes were made in their database. West Africa is certainly a plausible candidate if we're talking about deepwater since that region leads the world in offshore discoveries. I follow that region (look at posts I made here just yesterday, for example). As far as reserves in West Africa, no one knows what they are though they are growing. If you look at HO's series of posts on CERA projections, you will see that West Africa figures prominently in them.

But there is a bigger issue, which is: "What are the database ASPO updates?" I'd like to know because the ASPO re-evaluation of deepwater sources at this point is kind of fishy (no pun intended). Why now? And what's new?
As a non-technical newbie I find this puzzling because, to the extent deepwater oil is in the GOM, I would think the hurricanes (and prospect of more intense ones) would tend to make this resource cost prohibitive to expand access to.
Welcome aboard, Liz. I think many would agree with you here that there is far more financial risk in investing in GOM deepwater drilling than previously thought.

best,