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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (3833)	10/30/2006 7:01:14 PM
From: mistermj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

As far as the supply side, the world has been pretty well picked over, except in the polar regions and the deep oceans, like maybe the Mariannas Deep. The elephant fields, the big ones, get discovered and tapped first. There you go again. Where is your proof of this?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (3833)	10/31/2006 1:48:52 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

..he didn't assume anything on the demand side I was referring to the supply side. elephant fields, the big ones, get discovered and tapped first. You previously mentioned Ghawar and Cantarell. What I was getting at is that we don't know whether Mexico, as an example, may have another Cantarell (or a bunch of them) because Pemex has been scrimping on exploration forever. And still is. And will likely be in the future. Scrimping compared to what a bunch of private oil companies would be doing if they could drill in Mexico anyway. Geez, Mexico imports natural gas from the US. And they import refined products from a Shell refinery in Pasadena TX. A pitiful situation brought about by Pemex having a monopoly in Mexico. My argument doesn't apply as well to SA as they seem to be doing a lot of drilling, though probably still not as aggressively as the majors would do if they could. As far as the supply side, the world has been pretty well picked over .... We don't really know enough about some big parts of the world to say that for sure. Most of the mideast has been monopolized by NOC's since the '70's nationalizations. Mexico for a century or so. The former Communist countries had oil and gas industries but they were more backward than ours. They opened up some to foreign company involvement over the past 15 years, but now seem to be in the process of closing that off again.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (3833)	10/31/2006 9:11:17 PM
From: mistermj	Respond to of 10087

[Peak Oilers seem to miss the point of the Jack #2 discovery...its not one well that will make the difference...its the proof of principle that will make the difference going forward. It should seem obvious unless one is too busy spinning the news to think it through.] Pumping profits from the seabed Singapore firms lead the hunt to find oil on the ocean floor Tuesday • October 31, 2006 Lee U-Wen u-wen@mediacorp.com.sg THE quest for the dark fluid that keeps the world ticking has gone beyond conventional wells, all the way to the bottom of the ocean. And leading this hunt for oil is a bunch of Singapore companies, probing where no man has probed before. This switch to deepwater exploration has translated into contracts worth billions of dollars for offshore marine firms in Singapore. The vehicles to pump oil from under the sea are giant offshore rigs, each as tall as a skyscraper and capable of carrying hundreds of workers, who arrive and leave by helicopter or other vessels. The Keppel Offshore and Marine group, which produces half of all offshore rigs in the world, has seen the value of its orders increase nearly tenfold in the last four years alone. In 2002, the group secured contracts worth a total of $670 million. But in just the first nine months of this year, business has swelled to $6.07 billion. It currently has 30 jackup rigs and 10 semi-submersibles on order, along with a current net order book of $10.5 billion. A Keppel spokesman said the current cycle is a "sustainable" one, with the demand for drilling rigs fuelled by the need to explore and produce hydrocarbons in the deepwater regions to replenish oil reserves. Ezra Holdings, one of the industry's largest providers of offshore support and marine services, owns Singapore's largest fleet of 17 anchor handling ships, and has plans to double this number by the end of next year. The ships are used to tow the oil rigs — which reach up to nine storeys high and are as wide as two tennis courts — and anchor them deep into the ocean floor. The company said it intends to take delivery of new vessels at a rate of one a month for the next 16 months. Mr Chan Eng Yew, Ezra Holdings' assistant general manager for finance and marketing, told Today that its profits for the full year to Aug 31 have doubled to $61.7 million, boosted by a $31.6 million increase in turnover from its offshore support services division. "We see the demand coming from East Malaysia, mostly. The market will be on a continuous uptrend in the near to medium term, and there's a shortage of shipyard capacity as well as equipment. We are well-positioned to take advantage of this," he said. Ezra Holdings is not alone in profiting from the higher energy prices. Other firms looking to gain a stranglehold on the market include BP, Total and Tidewater and Solstand Offshore. Globally, the deepwater exploration and drilling industry has taken off in recent years, its pace forced by the constant rise in oil prices. A barrel of oil used to cost about US$30 four years ago. Late yesterday evening, prices stood at US$60.44. This means the push for deepwater drilling is unlikely to slow anytime soon. Already, experts are predicting that it will account for a quarter of all oil production by 2015, compared to just 9 per cent today. According to a BBC report, West Africa is poised to be the region with the fastest growth for deepwater drilling, followed by Europe's North Sea region and South-east Asia. The coasts off India, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia are also hot spots for exploration and production. Although extracting crude oil from under the ocean is more costly than pumping it from established wells, the appeal lies in the remote locations where the oil is located. Experts say deepwater regions, which are largely undeveloped and unexplored, are where the world's major reserves of oil are found. This has its own appeal. "These are areas that are not so politically sensitive," Mr Choo Chiau Beng, chairman and chief executive of Keppel Offshore & Marine, told the BBC. For now, Ezra's Mr Chan said the company — and the industry as a whole — is "optimistic and excited" about the potential of the deepwater exploration and drilling industry. "Our order book has been built up over the last three years, and we will continue to focus on South-east Asia and Australasia. The potential is there and we want to seize every opportunity we get."