Deep Oil found off coast of Brazil
I had written about deep oil before
here and
here. This is oil found several miles under the ocean and curiously enough, where there was never any vegetation - these locations have never been above sea level so the current thoughts on oil being a byproduct of rotting vegetation needs to be seriously reexamined...
Anyway, Brazil's oil reserves just increased by 40% with a new discovery. From
CNN/World/AP:
Oil discovery rocks Brazil
A huge offshore oil discovery could raise Brazil's petroleum reserves by a whopping 40 percent and boost this country into the ranks of the world's major exporters, officials said.
The government-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said the new "ultra-deep" Tupi field could hold as much as 8 billion barrels of recoverable light crude, sending Petrobras shares soaring and prompting predictions that Brazil could join the world's "top 10" oil producers.
Petrobras President Sergio Gabrielli said Thursday the oil from ultradeep areas, including the Tupi field, would give Brazil the world's eighth-largest oil and gas reserves.
"Brazil's reserves will lie somewhere between those of Nigeria and those of Venezuela," Gabrielli said at a news conference.
Petrobras says the Tupi field, off Brazil's southeastern Atlantic coast, has between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels -- equivalent to 40 percent of all the oil ever discovered in Brazil.
A bit about the field's location:
The Tupi field lies under 2,140 meters (7,060 feet) of water, more than 3,000 meters (almost 10,000 feet) of sand and rocks, and then another 2,000-meter (6,600-foot) thick layer of salt. The company drilled test wells that lie under 2,166 meters (7,100 feet) of water, 286 kilometers (177 miles) south of Rio de Janeiro.
Getting that oil out of the Earth's crust is a formidable challenge, but most of Brazil's oil lies off its Atlantic coast, and Petrobras has become a global leader in ultradeep offshore oil extraction.
I'm glad that this is Brazilian and not Argentinian. Not liking Chavez' politics very much these days - his nation is settling down into thuggery.
Posted by DaveH at November 9, 2007 9:01 PM