Quest for oil gets more remote — and riskier

[IDemo]

By Harry R. Weber and John Flesher
The Associated Press
updated 11/4/2010 6:48:39 PM

MIAMI — The world's thirst for crude is leading oil exploration companies into ever deeper waters and ventures fraught with environmental and political peril.

The days when the industry could merely drill on land and wait for the oil — and the profits — to flow are coming to an end. Because of that, companies feel compelled to sink wells at the bottom of deep oceans, inject chemicals into the ground to force oil to the surface, deal with unsavory regimes, or operate in some of the world's most environmentally sensitive and inaccessible spots, far from ports and decent roads. All those factors could make it difficult to move in equipment and clean up a spill.

From the Arctic to Cuba to the coast of Nigeria, avoiding catastrophes like BP's Gulf of Mexico spill is likely to become increasingly difficult and require cooperation among countries that aren't used to working together.

An Associated Press review of oil ventures around the world found plans such as these:

* Punch through layers of salt more than three miles beneath the ocean floor off the coast of Brazil;
* Drill exploratory wells farther offshore in the Arctic;
* Drill seven exploratory wells off Cuba;
* Extract oil from crude-soaked sands on the Canadian prairie.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40011807/ns/world_news-world_environment/