Vast oil field tapped in the Gulf of Mexico...

[tjwash]

...But the vast oil deposit roughly four miles beneath the ocean floor won't significantly reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and it won't help lower prices at the pump anytime soon, analysts said.

“It's a nice positive, but the U.S. still has a big difference between its consumption and indigenous production,” said Art Smith, chief executive of energy consultant John S. Herold. “We'll still be importing more than 50 percent of our oil needs.”

Chevron on Tuesday estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids. The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude-oil in a year.

It will take many years and tens of billions of dollars to bring the newly tapped oil to market, but the discovery carries particular importance for the industry at a time when Western oil and gas companies are finding fewer opportunities in politically unstable parts of the world, including the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

Entire story here.

[gratuitous]

1. And note how long it will take to bring this oil to market

Analysts say this oil won't make a dime's worth of difference. And why? Because it won't come to market for a decade or longer. Which is the exact same thing analysts have said about the oil in ANWR. It won't have any effect whatsoever on the price at the pump or the level of our dependence on foreign oil.

[The_Warmth]

3. It's just more harm to the environment...

I don't think we'll stop using oil until we're all dead.

[yourout]

2. Even more to the point.......Someday we will run out of oil.

Its not a matter of if....Its a matter of when.

So why not start developing the future NOW?

If we started a NASA like program we could reduce our dependancy on DINO fuels by 1/3 in the next 15 to 20 years.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. True, But Definitely Still A Great Find Anyway.

I know there won't be an immediate impact, but I still thought it was great news when I read yesterday that they tapped into a new source.

Kudos to them on their discovery.

:toast:

[tjwash]

5. It's a good find. But the Gulf of Mexico...yikes.

They already lost one big oil rig from a hurricane there already.

[Monk06]

6. I know of no oil play that that predicts 15 Billion of economic reserves

based on on test well with 6000 bbl per day output.

This news is being oversold.

At this point it's a typical Wall St paper play.

Note: the real news in the is story is

Shares of Devon rose $7.73, or 12.1 percent, to $71.88 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, above the top end of the stock's 52-week range of $48.94 to $70.35. Shares of Chevron rose $1.76, or 2.7 percent, to $66.59.

One commentator said that this discovery was important because "the Alberta Oils Sands were tapped out"

CAPP's own estimate of Canada's recoverable oil sands is 315 billion bbls - 20% from mining and the rest from steam-assisted drilling.

Gulf deep oil is a tiny fraction of the Alberta Reserves if in fact the Gulf reserves can be proven out
by more test wells.


But trying to sell this minor unproven energy resource by claimking that the tar sands are tapped out
when in fact they are in the very early stages of production is an outright lie.

Gulf deep oil is a paper scam backed by some very early stage deep drilling technology and no
economic analysis of the feasibility of bringing oil six miles under water to surface at a reasonable market price.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. Part of the Problem is that the Mckenzie Wilderness

and ANWR will be despoiled by thousands of miles of natural gas pipeline, with "environmentally friendly" hydrogen being separated
by the gas and converted to "electric" vehicles that will make even the snottiest "green drivers" feel good about themselves.

The gas, a "Saudi Arabia of natural gas" will be piped to northern Alberta, where it will ALL be burned in order to extract the oil from the Tar Sands in an energy-positive fashion.

That's why Bush is pushing hydrogen.

Meanwhile Montana is pushing "ultra clean coal" which may or may not be good for the environment, depending where the coal comes from. It'd be really good for mass transit but really bad if it comes from strip mines.

I take it the "ultra clean coal" folks are opposed to the Tar Sands/Hydrogen/Gas Pipeline folks.

Oh yeah, and all the coal and copper that would be stripmined along the wilderness pipeline route.

[theophilus]

7. I have to disagree. This just keeps us on the poison teat.

As long as we are burning petroleum for energy we're making catastrophic climate change more likely.
Let this oil stay down there unless we need it for non-fuel uses, if they don't produce CO2. We need to stop spewing CO2 now. This is like giving heroin addicts all they want. Bad idea.

[applegrove]

9. Any word on the Arctic? Cause the crazies seem to want allot of ice

to melt really fast.