THere is nothing about khurais that promises 1.2Mb/d... actually, the field itself promises maybe 1/10 of that. It is the saudis that promise that incredible number, adding 'trust me'.

SA is indeed interested in off shore rigs, already poaching several looking for ng in our gulf to look for oil in theirs. Indeed, they are interested in absolutely every bit of oil infrastructure known to man - huge water pumps to relocate the persian gulf underground; on shore rigs, now up 3x and moving rapidly towards 10x; off shore rigs; in a word, we've heard of everything except tankers.

SA, mexico and venezuela are quite similar in result - production in all countries is way down - but SA, at least, is trying to do something about it. Venezuela is more like mexico, both starving their fields of internal investment and external capital/expertise. IMO all three will continue declining. Of the three, only venezuela has the potential to bring production back to former highs, but imo will not under chavez, usefully saving oil for somebody's future, not that chavez cares.

Can you explain a bit about khurais. I don't know much about the field except for the vanadium.

The fact that KSA is expending so much effort to develop a field with basically unsellable oil speak volumes in itself. Just about any combination of other choices if they existed make more sense. Unless of course production has peaked.

It is manifa that has the vanadium, this is probably what sa meant when they said they had no buyers for their oil last spring. Khurais produced at one time something over 100k/d, then trickled down and was abandoned. They have great hopes with, I think, a water flood, but 1.2Mb/d seems wildly optimistic... imo more likely they might get back to their former peak for a while.