[nth]

Na Kika is operated by Shell, but here is a good article by BP if you are interested in it.

BP link

[nth]

I'll bet there is lots of oil under the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and under the Arctic Ocean too. Now if we just had a way of melting off the pack ice, think of the gross amounts of money we could make while Oceana sinks beneath the waves. Three birds with one stone. We preserve American hegemony, get rid of the terrorist threat from Fiji, and put an end to those annoying Coke commercials with the little white bears in them.

Win win win baby!

Why do we need to melt the ice?
It is easier to dig through the ice than to dig through mud. If the ice melts, it will leave behind swampy mudland. Nevertheless, Greenland has not shown any large deposits, so the chances of it actually happening is quite low. Arctic region is already being exploited. They are slowly inching up higher and higher. Antarctica is still not happening. I am sure we will when we get desperate.

[nth]

Yes, Chevron is still planning to revisit "Jack" in the deep depths of the Gulf of Mexico during the hurricane season this July:

It turns out that Devon will be drilling the third hole. I am not sure how this is handled, but Devon has the rights to the ship.

In coming weeks, Devon will use the Ocean Endeavor to drill a prospect well at its Chuck field, which it owns with ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Then, it will drill another well at Chevron's Jack field, in which it owns a partial stake. After that, it will move the massive rig to Cascade, a field in which it holds a majority interest and expects to begin producing oil from in 2009.

Rigzone

[DantesPeak]

nth - Fairly good article. Funny how your positive news story and this disturbing news below came out the same day.

Looks like "Jack #2" will just be another covered over hole in the dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico for a year .. or two ... or more.

Chevron Postpones $3 Billion Jack Prospect in Gulf


June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, won't resume drilling at Jack, a Gulf of Mexico oil field that may unlock reserves to rival Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, until late this year or early 2008 because of a shortage of rigs.

The company halted work in August because it needed to use the Cajun Express rig to finish another project. It planned to resume drilling next month. A scarcity of rigs that can bore 6 miles below the seabed forced a second postponement, Chevron spokesman Mickey Driver said in an interview today.

The rig shortage means a longer wait before U.S. refiners gain access to the oil in Jack and dozens of adjacent fields in the Gulf. Chevron's successful test of a 20,000-foot well at Jack last year showed that 3 billion to 15 billion barrels of previously unreachable crude could be tapped.

``We absolutely won't start up at Jack this summer,'' Driver said in an interview from Houston. ``There's still a very tight market out there for these rigs.'' Transocean Inc., which supplied the rig used to drill last year's Jack well, ``has no rigs available this year, almost none in 2008 and very little in 2009.''

Bloomberg

Good article in respect to troubles facing energy industry in the Gulf of Mexico.

[nth]

Actually, I already doubt they were going to drill in summer. As I stated before, they have not submitted paperwork to do drilling in Jack Field. Also, the Devon article points to drilling Chuck first. This means at the earliest this ship will be ready is Q4 of 2007. It looks like your latest news is simply Chevron resetting expectations so just in case Devon's ship could not drill Jack right after finishing drilling Chuck.

Also, this means Tahiti field is behind schedule as far as drilling holes in the ground. They still can claim they are on schedule if they want to as some wells have been completed, and can start production when platform and subsea manifolds are completed.

[DantesPeak]

Thanks nth.

In one year, the Jack#2 'discovery' has gone from front page news to obscurity - yet when the news first came out, it was used as prima facia 'evidence' to debunk PO.

[shortonoil]

To drill a Jack #2 well, at $100 million per well, will requires 7x10^12 BTU. It will take 1.1 mb of oil from each well to break even on an energy budget. These wells are the figment of someone’s overactive imagination!

[nth]

Jack is still used to debunk PO by the media. I don't know how they are related, but I can bet anyone here $1000 that Jack field will go into production before 2020. There is a lot of oil in the ground with proven production flow. No way Chevron will walk away from this. The cost of of production will drop. Despite rising costs today, the costs are still dropping. Technology is rising to the challenge. Chevron and Transocean's new drillship to be delivered in a few years will reduce the costs to $80m per well if inflation rate stays the same. Today, drilling under 100m water is cheaper than 30 years ago using constant dollar.

The whole lower tertiary can hold up to 15B barrels, yet is only forecast to produce 800kbpd. How can US GoM play any role in mitigating PO? You need four to five new lower tertiary discoveries per year to just keep world oil production level. We are not talking Jack field, but the whole lower tertiary area. It boggles my mind whenever media prints about Jack field.

Jack field should be the perfect example on how discoveries do jack to prevent PO.

[nth]

Chevron's T.O. Canjun Express is drilling in Jack Field.

We should hear about the results in a few months.

[nth]

Chevron's T.O. Canjun Express is drilling in Jack Field.

We should hear about the results in a few months.

I have no idea why, but they have decided to move T.O. Canjun Express to drill St Malo.

No idea who is going to drill Jack. No drilling as of yet.

[pup55]

NOAA Coastal Services Center

Probably because they do not want to find it floating up against some bridge in Mobile.

Actually, this is the hurricane map we did for "Lease 181" and I think Jack is a litle farther south than this. Still, it's a pretty risky place to park an expensive piece of equipment.

Edit: On further review, I guess St. Malo is not all that far away, so will not avoid the big one when it happens anyway.

[DantesPeak]

15 months after Jack #2 was discovered, drilling in the deep depths of the Gulf of Mexico is proceeding at a snail's pace - a slow snail's pace:

Chevron, Partners Postpone Work on Deepest Gulf Well (Update1)

By Joe Carroll and Ian McKinnon

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. and its partners won't resume work on the deepest oil well ever drilled in the Gulf of Mexico until 2009, three years later than planned, because of a shortage of rigs.

A well needed to appraise the size and geology of the Knotty Head field is on hold until a rig capable of boring more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) beneath the seafloor is available, said Marv Romanow, chief financial officer at Canada's Nexen Inc., one of Chevron's partners in the field.

For Chevron, it's the third major project delayed this year by equipment failure or scarcity, encompassing fields that hold a combined 1.2 billion barrels of crude, enough to supply all the refineries on the U.S. East Coast for two years. An Ensco International Inc. rig under construction in Singapore probably will be used to resume work at Knotty Head.

``At this time, we're still searching for a rig,'' Romanow told investors and analysts today on a conference call. ``We've rejected a couple of alternatives that we have evaluated, and this well may be delayed until 2009 when our Ensco rig'' is ready.

The company's $3 billion Jack prospect was delayed in June because of a rig shortage.

Bloomberg

Location of Knotty Head

[Niagara]

...on hold until a rig capable of boring more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) beneath the seafloor is available, said Marv Romanow, chief financial officer at Canada's Nexen Inc., one of Chevron's partners in the field.

5 miles beneath the seafloor. (Shakes head in amazement)

[Tanada]

...on hold until a rig capable of boring more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) beneath the seafloor is available, said Marv Romanow, chief financial officer at Canada's Nexen Inc., one of Chevron's partners in the field.

5 miles beneath the seafloor. (Shakes head in amazement)

Doesn't something that deep almost have to be Methane and other components of Natural Gas rather than petroleum?

[nth]

Doesn't something that deep almost have to be Methane and other components of Natural Gas rather than petroleum?

I am no geologist, but there is plenty of crude oil at those depths and that is a fact.

I still don't understand how these fields will prevent peak oil. Tahiti is now 2009. Talking about delays. Especially, Tahiti, news came out that the delay from 2007 will go to 2008 and now 2009. Too bad no one took my bet that Tahiti was not going to produce in early 2008.
I am still wondering if people will take up my bet on Kashagan not able to deliver oil on time. They still do not have their contracts straight.

[DantesPeak]

Major energy companies must be now be viewing building oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico the same way dinosaurs caught in prehistoric tar pits did - a lot of loud thunderous noise and trashing about, but they are not going anywhere.

Are we not entertained?

Billiton: Neptune Oil Project Still Delayed

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
April 6, 2008 10:43 p.m.

PERTH (Dow Jones)--Michael Yeager, head of BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP.AU) petroleum unit, said Monday that the company's Neptune oil project in the Gulf of Mexico remains delayed.

Yeager said that BHP is "looking at some remediation and recommencing on startup activity," but didn't name a startup date.

The Neptune project, costing US$1.2 billion, was originally due to come on-stream in the fourth quarter of 2007. But the delays in the project were lengthened last month when BHP uncovered structural anomalies in Neptune's hull.

Neptune, along with BHP's Atlantis venture, is part of BHP's major expansion in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region.

WSJ
subscription may be required

Earlier, delays were blamed on "anomalies":

BHP Evacuates Neptune Oil Platform in U.S. Gulf, Upstream Says

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd. evacuated its Neptune oil platform in the U.S. Gulf after discovering ``anomalies'' in the hull, Upstream said, citing Teresa Wong a BHP spokeswoman.

The irregularities were found during visual inspections of the 5,900-ton hull in advance of the planned start of production from the project in Green Canyon block 613, the oil industry newsletter said on its Web site. The platform lies in about 4,250-feet deep water, it said.

The $1.1 billion Neptune project, due to start production this quarter, has suffered cost overruns and delays and it's uncertain how the start-up schedule may be affected by the latest setback, Upstream said. BHP owns 35 percent of Neptune and is the operator, while Marathon Oil Corp. owns 30 percent, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. 20 percent and Repsol YPF SA 15 percent.

Samantha Evans, a BHP spokeswoman in Melbourne, couldn't be reached for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at [email protected]

Last Updated: March 21, 2008 20:33 EDT

Bloomberg

[Sys1]

I thought at first glance that a Neptune oil project was set in outer space. :Laugh:
Anyway, even after reading the article, I bet the EROEI will be almost as bad!

[bratticus]

The Battle for Pemex: a Mexican Oil Worker Explains Energy Reform by Kristin Bricker - November 4, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Mexican Congress approves light reforms for the state oil company; legislators vow to continue the campaign to privatize Pemex
... Narco News: How do you respond to politicians’ statements in the media that Mexico is running out of petroleum, so Pemex needs to be privatized before this happens?

Gomezcana Morales: Peak oil is a reality. Peak oil is petroleum’s downfall. This year we’ve hit peak oil at a global level--we’ve reached the zenith, and now comes the drop in petroleum reserves. We’re seeing this in Mexico. Mexico will stop producing petroleum. We’re not finding new oilfields. We’re already experiencing a strong decrease in petroleum reserves globally.

The problem is that there aren’t alternative projects. The few projects that exist that are searching for alternative energy sources are redundant. Foreigners are carrying out these projects. It’s written into Plan Puebla Panama that in the case of Mexico's wind power, instead of the [state-owned] electric company[4] having the responsibility to invest in wind power projects, they grant the right to install windmills in this zone to foreign private companies like Spain’s Repsol. It’s our wind, even though that sounds a little abstract. The profits won’t be for Mexico. The profits are for the foreign companies. Repsol doesn’t even have the infrastructure to carry out these types of projects. Repsol subcontracts the work to other foreign companies, just like Halliburton does. And they keep granting these projects to Repsol and Halliburton because the neoliberal governments--like Mexico’s--allow it.

Something else very important is going on in Mexico. No other country would permit the conflict of interests that exists in the Mexican Ministry of the Interior (Segob in its Spanish initials). Felipe Calderon’s little pet Juan Camilo Mourino [the current Secretary of the Interior] has a conflict of interest in our country’s energy sector.[5] He’s Spanish. So he’s promoting Spanish investment in our country. They have vested interests here.

To sum it up, there are two completely different projects here: the Global South’s project and the North’s project. Those of us from below, and the powerful. Those of us who defend all of our resources--one of them being petroleum--from projects like Plan Puebla Panama, and those who want what’s ours.

... [4] Electricity is also nationalized in Mexico under the government’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE in its Spanish initials).

[5] In 2002 and 20003, while working as an aid to then-Secretary of Energy Felipe Calderon, Mourino signed at least three energy contracts as an official representative of his father’s Mexican transportation company Transportes Especializados Ivancar. The contracts were for services provided to Pemex. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who presented the contracts to the media, said, “He obtained million-peso contracts by directly awarding them in order to benefit his family business.”

But right after that: boom for real!

Juan Camilo Mourino (RIP) and Energy Reform in Mexico

Mr. Mourino's energy legacy is mixed: The energy reforms of 2008 are likely to benefit those service companies that, already, have lucrative contracts with Pemex. The reform of Article 33 of the Federal Administration Law provides that the Energy Ministry will submit to the Foreign Ministry (SRE) proposals for agreements and treaties for cross-border oilfields.

Juan Camilo Mourino (RIP) and Energy Reform in Mexico

Mr. Mourino's energy legacy is mixed: The energy reforms of 2008 are likely to benefit those service companies that, already, have lucrative contracts with Pemex. The reform of Article 33 of the Federal Administration Law provides that the Energy Ministry will submit to the Foreign Ministry (SRE) proposals for agreements and treaties for cross-border oilfields.

Juan Camilo Mourino, Secretario de Gobernacion, killed

It’s going to be impossible NOT to speculate on the narcotics angle… but given that among Mourino’s political activities during his short tenure was his attempt to “sell” PEMEX de-nationalization, the location of the crashsite is either an odd coincidence, or a very werid ironic statement.

The Calderon Administration has been trying -- with less and less success -- to claim the war on drug dealers will make Mexico safer. The recent arrests of high level police and security officials (including people working in the United States Embassy) for passing information to the narcos has only been the latest (and so far most serious) security breach to come out of the narco-war.
Politically, resistance to the Administration’s proposed PEMEX reforms -- pushed by Mourino -- will mean the Calderon Administration will be in even more difficulty and resistance from the opposition parties to other domestic programs is likely to increase

[pup55]

Yeah, the crazy little country of Mexico. We calculated awhile back that there are a lot worse places to be, but let us summarize the situation by saying their four most important sources of income are the following (not necessarily in order):

1. Fossil Fuels
2. narcotics--almost as addictive
3. Exporting their young men for labor
4. Tourism

So it does not take a genius to figure out what is going to be left over when TSHTF.

Ironically, they should do quite well at it. There is a giant, ready customer just to their north, with insatiable demand. The stuff (especially weed) grows readily in their rich soil, under the prevailing weather conditions, and transportation is relatively simple, and best of all, the ruling elite that is involved in the other three are already deeply entrenched in the fourth.

There is the minor issue that it's illegal in the US, but the supply chain is already well developed, no problem to get the stuff cheaply in anyplace in the US.

So let the fun begin.