Gulf of Mexico over 70% depleted.

Yesterday I was messing around in the US Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service web pages trying to find out how much of the GOM was still offline from Katrina and Rita. I did not find that because they seem to have stopped giving out that information but I did find out a whole lot more.

The MMS as well as the USGS both fall under the Department of Interior while the EIA comes under the Department of Energy. At any rate I it looks like they, the MMS, are look looking at many possible sources of alternative energy including gas hydrates, wind farms and other things:

http://www.mms.gov/2005EnergyPolicyAct.htm#GasHydrates

Also I found some other startling news. The Gulf of Mexico was, three and one half years ago, 70% depleted.

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/fldresv/MMS%202005-052.pdf

The above points to a rather long PDF file, but on page 7, or page v if you go by the page number of the file itself, you will find the abstract. It says that as of December 31, 2002, the estimated UUR of the Gulf of Mexico was 18.75 billion barrels, of which 13.04 billion barrels had already been produced at that time. Remaining proven reserves were 5.71 billion barrels, unproved reserves were 1.35 billion barrels while not reported reserves, whatever that is, was 2.5 billion barrels.

Note: Before Katrina and Rita, the GOM produced about .55 billion barrels of oil per year or 1.5 million barrels per day. Now it is slightly less than that. But after BPs Thunder Horse comes on line next year then GOM production should jump to a little over .6 billion barrels per year. They expect Thunder Horse, after it gets fully ramped up, to be producing about 300,000 barrels per day. Of course by that time, late next year, the rest of the GOM will be depleted a bit more and producing a little less than it is today.

A further note: I assume this article refers to the area of the GOM that is open to drilling. That is the area off the Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas Coast.  It probably does not include the area off the Florida coast. But since the oil starts to peter out as the field approaches the Alabama coast, I have serious doubts as to how much can be found off the Gulf Coast of Florida.