The Oil Drum

Offshore drilling is again in the news, with many saying we shouldn't drill now. Drilling will take more than 10 years for most of the oil in question. I believe that we need to start the process now, partly because the expected impact of peak oil will make drilling in future years much more difficult, and partly because technical advances within the petroleum industry have helped overcome some previous objections to drilling.

Locations of concern include coastal waters such as those near Florida; the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) (beyond state coastal areas); and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The views in this article are my own, particularly the peak oil views. Many of the comments about technical issues are based on discussions with the American Petroleum Institute (API). I recently participated in an API bloggers conference phone call on the subject of "Exploration and Production." We talked about offshore drilling and ANWR. A listing of the people involved can be found here, and a transcript of the call can be found here.

Love him or hate him, I doubt many Peak Oil adherents think that Jim Kunstler is wrong about the unsustainability and gloomy future of America's sprawl culture.

View It And Weep -- Figure 1

It started for me this week when National Public Radio did a series of stories about Phoenix Grows and Grows (audio) which according to the latest US Census Bureau statistics, is now the fifth largest city in America. But we're not talking about suburban sprawl. The hottest new demographic is the growth of Exurbia, the suburbs beyond the suburbs.

Part of the problem with news out of Saudi Arabia is that it is often a little nuanced, and every word needs to be noted.  So just after writing yesterday that it would be interesting to see what SA would do, following the drop in production for OPEC in January, Schlumberger is carrying the news that the Haradh development will come on stream soon.  The development, down at the bottom end of the Ghawar field, was included in several of Matt Simmon's presentations, and, some time ago, I stole a descriptive slide from him to show the technology that they are using there.  You will note that in addition to Maximum Reservoir Contact (the multiple laterals off from the main horizontal well) they are also using interspersed valving to create Smart Wells.  The reason for this is

The company didn't say what the current output level is, but has said output is expected to be 300,000 b/d of crude oil and 140 million cubic feet per day of natural gas in the second quarter.

Saudi Aramco said oil began flowing Wednesday through a gas/oil separation plant at the southern end of Ghawar, the world's biggest oil field, just 21 months after approval of funding and ahead of schedule.

In the statement, Saudi Aramco said 520,000 b/d of treated seawater will be injected into the field each day to maintain reservoir pressure.

Just over a week ago I posted the changing picture of the American gasoline stocks.  Here is the latest version thereof, and the picture has changed in direction.
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If one  further looks at the numbers that the EIA site provides. There is a slight discrepancy between the tabulated data and that plotted, and it took me a minute to realize that the curves are showing the rolling four-week averaged data, rather than the actual weekly for the imported gasoline data (and presumably also for the rest).  This is of significance since such an average, in this case with the changing situation, initially masks the fact that the imports for the past three weeks have gone from 0.938 to 1.207 to 1.423 mbd.  One may assume (at least I am) that about 500,000 bd of this is coming from the 20 mbd of gasoline that was put up by the IEA partners in response to our request following Katrina.  If this is the level of support that can be anticipated, then it will last some 40 odd days before that source is gone.