The Oil Drum

BusinessWeek reports something of a shocker: Fox: Deep-water oil find may top Cantarell (Note that this was discussed in previous threads, but I guess the editors managed to miss it. I can only imagine that many of you did too, so here it is for everyone. Thanks, Leanan. But keep reading—I promise you new content under the fold.)

We've mentioned before that Cantarell is in decline, and this article reports that "Production at Cantarell is expected to decline 6 percent this year, to 1.9 million barrels a day, and decline even more sharply in subsequent years." Cantarell's original total reserves were 11.5 billion barrels. (Khebab's post at EnergyBulletin on the state of Mexican reserves also bears on this issue.)

The emailer who sent us this story noted that he believes that the field is in fact bigger than Cantarell, but also a heavier grade.