More bubblin crude:
[Via Deep Sea News]
Unlike people in the glamour states of Florida and California, folks here in Texas don’t mind a little offshore oil development. We view the petroleum industry as two parts necessary evil and one part benevolent overlord. And, we feel this way for free. We don’t get paid off like the lucky folks in Alaska. Our complacency is almost a kind of nostalgia. You might say Big Oil has it pretty easy here in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2001 there were 46 deep water rigs operating in the Gulf and the mood was one of cautious optimism. Now, thanks to escalating oil prices, the mood is more like a rich man’s bliss.
[More]
There is some discussion about our ability to suck oil that is under Mexico’s water. Many of the Mexican’s are afraid we will drink their milkshake. (Spoilers: See here for the video and here for a translation.)
But there are a couple of things. First, Mexico does not have the capability to do this type of drilling. And it may not represent a milkshake drinking proposition. From the LA Times:
It’s unclear whether big shared deposits even exist in the Gulf of Mexico. Historically, the region’s deepwater finds have been isolated pockets of petroleum, not mega-fields.
Officials at the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that regulates U.S. offshore production, said they had no knowledge that any gulf reservoirs now under development crossed the international divide.
Shell, which is developing its Perdido platform with Chevron and BP, said the deposits they were targeting were confined to U.S. territory.
I would expect that if there does turn out to be a big reservoir and oil is sucked out of Mexico, then there will a diplomatic solution (i.e. we can get access to some of the oil across the border by sharing some of it).
I was disappointed the article did not really say how much oil was going to come out of the three fields :Silvertip, Tobango and Great White. While no one really knows until they get the drilling done, from what I could find, the fields will produce about 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day at their peak. The rig should be ready to start next year.
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