W. Kiernan wrote:
>I can't tell from the (intentionally?) vague article
but
>I wonder if it's in one of those 36-mile by 6-mile
>Coastal Petroleum parcels up and down the Gulf Coast
of
>Florida.
It was reportedly almost 200 miles offshore. There are other projects in development doing ultra-deep drilling but in the Gulf's shallow waters, but 'shallow' is a relative term.
I wouldn't be to gladdened by the find if I were a peak oil skeptic. The costs involved in such a project are pretty frightening, and are a good indication of where we are presently. For instance, my employer (before I got there) was involved in a royalty trust covering one of the shallow water deep drills. The memoranda covering the trust, if I'm remembering this right, said the costs for a drilling a dry hole (basically failing) could have amounted to $100 mil. Further, the likelihood of success on the first well was far under 20%. I don't know how many times greater the cost would be when you move into truly deep water, but I know rig rates on the biggest pieces can run over $500k/day.
Our oil economy has been pretty good at externalizing its true costs (I don't want to set off another 'oil war' debate, but I define externalities pretty liberally). Those costs were already quite high when oil was $30.
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