|

OIL ABUNDANCE, YES OR NO?
Read the
following articles carefully! After you read these articles you will
have a different opinion concerning oil supplies. The oil
sources/resources were created for the use of the entire human race.
These resources along with others, i.e. wood, coal, natural gas were
supplied by a loving Creator for our use. These resources however, are
being controlled by evil unconverted people. They only seek financial
gain from these resources. Price gouging is apparent as gas prices
continue to escalate. Can something be done about it? Will
something be done? Only if the people make enough noise!
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2006
|
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Massive oil field
found under Gulf
Reserves south of New
Orleans could rival
North Slope, boosting U.S. supplies by 50%
Posted: September 5, 2006
11:57 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Oil-drilling platform in Gulf of
Mexico |
Chevron
and two oil exploration companies announced the discovery of a giant oil
reserve in the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation's supplies by
as much as 50 percent and provide compelling evidence oil is a plentiful
deep-earth product made naturally on a continuous basis.
Known as the Jack Field, the reserve – some 270 miles southwest of
New Orleans – is estimated to hold as much as 15 billion barrels of oil.
Authors Jerome R. Corsi and Craig R. Smith say the giant find
validates the key thesis of their book, "Black
Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil,"
that oil did not come from the remains of ancient plant and animal life
but is made naturally by the Earth.
"We have always rejected the theories that oil and natural gas are
biological products," Corsi told WND. "Chevron's find in the Gulf of
Mexico validates our argument that the Gulf is a huge resource for
finding oil and natural gas."
The Wall Street Journal reports today the find could boost the
nation's current reserves of 29.3 billion barrels by as much as 50
percent.
Chevron discovered the field by drilling the deepest to date in the
Gulf of Mexico, down 28,175 feet in waters nearly 7,000 feet deep, some
seven miles below the surface of the Earth.
The second biggest source of oil in the world is Mexico's giant
Cantarell field in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula. It was
discovered in 1976, supposedly after a fisherman named Cantarell
reported an oil seep in Campeche Bay.
In March, Mexico
announced the
discovery of a field that could be larger than Cantarell, the Noxal
field in the Gulf of Mexico off Veracruz.
In "Black Gold Stranglehold," Corsi and Smith argued the theory
developed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s by Prof. Nikolai Kudryavtsev
that oil is a deep-earth, abiotic product. The theory, the authors
wrote, "rejected the contention that oil was formed from the remains of
ancient plant and animal life that died millions of years ago. According
to Kudryavtsev, oil had nothing to do with the unproved concept of a
boggy primeval forest rotting into petroleum. The Soviet scientist
ridiculed the idea that an ancient primeval morass of plant and animal
remains was covered by sedimentary deposits over millions of years,
compressed by millions of more years of heat and pressure."
Instead, the abiotic theory argued "oil should be seen as a
primordial material that the earth forms and exudes on a continual
basis."
Corsi and Smith directly challenge the "peak oil" theory advanced in
1956 by Shell Oil's M. King Hubbert.
In an interview with WND, Smith posed the following question: "If
U.S. proven oil reserves can be increased by 50 percent with one
deep-earth oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, who knows how much oil might
be found as the technology of deep-water drilling advances and becomes
even more economically feasible?"
In "Black Gold Stranglehold," Corsi and Smith note the importance of
the abiotic theory:
The thought that oil might be naturally produced on a regular basis,
that oil itself might be a renewable resource, is very threatening to
those who have invested their minds into believing that oil is fossil
fuel. The logical consequence of the fossil fuel theory of oil has
always been that we will run out of oil. After all, there could only
be a finite number of ancient forests available to rot into oil.
Ancient forests, even if once plentiful, are a finite resource that by
definition will become exhausted after they are fully explored and
their oil harvested. The logic of the fossil fuel theory is that
inevitably we will run out of oil.
Corsi and Smith note the power of the abiotic theory: "Could it be
that oil is abundant, nearly an inexhaustible resource, if only we drill
deep enough?"
Prior to the Jack Field discovery, the largest U.S. oil find in the
Gulf of Mexico has been the
Thunder Horse, about 125 miles southeast of New Orleans. British
Petroleum holds a 75-percent interest with ExxonMobil to develop the
Thunder Horse. This field, too, is deep-earth oil, with BP and
ExxonMobil finding oil under one mile of water and five miles below the
seabed.
Scientists believe Mexico's richest oil field complex was created
when the prehistoric, massive Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth.
"Could it be that the Chicxulub meteor deeply fractured the entire
bedrock under the Gulf of Mexico?" Corsi asked in a WND interview. "If
so, we might find abundant oil wherever we look as we begin to explore
the deeper waters of the Gulf."
Earlier this year,
Cuba announced plans to hire the communist Chinese to drill for oil some
45 miles off the shores of Florida. This move was made possible by
the 1977 agreement under President Jimmy Carter that created for Cuba an
"Exclusive Economic Zone" extending from the country's western tip to
the north, virtually to Key West, Fla.
"If Cuba and communist China believe they too can find oil in the
Gulf, we should pull out all stops," argues Smith. "We may be able to
bring the price of gasoline down under two dollars a gallon if oil can
be found in these huge quantities within our territorial waters. It's
crazy to think we should be dependent on foreign oil when we've made
Mexico our number two supplier of oil with the reserves Mexico has found
in the Gulf."
"Thomas Gold should feel vindicated today," Corsi added, referring to
the Cornell University astronomer who in 1998 published "The Deep Hot
Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels," a book that also challenged the
conventional wisdom on the origin of oil.
"As an astronomer reading spectrographs," Corsi noted, "Gold knew
that hydrocarbon products such as methane are abundant in our solar
system. Gold knew that the abundant methane on Titan, the giant moon of
Saturn, did not get formed by little dinosaurs up on Titan, or by any
other kind of biological material. So far as we know, nothing living has
ever been found on Titan." |
UPDATE JULY 2006
|
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Running out
of oil?
Posted: July 19, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
by Walter
Williams
© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
"Proven" oil reserves, oil that's economically and technologically
recoverable, are estimated to be more than 1.1 trillion barrels. That's
enough oil, at current usage rates, to fuel the world's economy for 38
years, according to Leonardo Maugeri, vice president for the Italian
energy company ENI. Mr. Maugeri provides a wealth of information about
energy in "Two Cheers for Expensive Oil," published by Foreign Affairs
(March/April 2006) and reprinted on the same date in Current.
There are an additional 2 trillion barrels of "recoverable" reserves.
Mr. Maugeri says these oil reserves will probably meet the "proven"
standard in a few years as technological improvement and increased
sub-soil knowledge come online. Estimates of recoverable oil don't
include the huge deposits of "unconventional" oil such as Canadian tar
sands and U.S. shale oil; plus there are vast areas of our planet yet to
be fully explored. For decades, alarmists have claimed we're running out
of oil. In 1919, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that world oil
production would peak in nine years. During the 1970s, the Club of Rome
report, "The Limits to Growth," said that, assuming no rise in
consumption, all known oil reserves would be entirely consumed in just
31 years.
There are several factors that explain today's high prices. There has
been a huge surge in demand for oil as a result of rapid economic growth
in China and India, as well as in the United States. Another factor is
the under-exploration. Maugeri says Saudi Arabia has 260 billion barrels
of proven reserves, accounting for 25 percent of the world's total, but
only one-third of the oil known to lie below its surface. Russia's
reserves are three times its proven reserves of 50 billion barrels.
While high prices are beginning to stimulate investments in oil
exploration, they've lagged for several decades out of fear of oil gluts
and low prices. It's going to be 2010 before today's investments yield
fruit.
A substantial increase in oil production alone cannot ease today's
high prices because of weak refining capacity. Not a single refinery has
been built in the United States for 30 years. Improvements to existing
refineries failed to keep up with growing demand and tougher
environmental regulations. We're the world's only industrialized country
with a net deficit in refining capacity that comes to 20 percent of
domestic demand. That makes us highly vulnerable to disasters like last
year's hurricanes. Exacerbating weak refining capacity are regulations
whereby gasoline produced for one state may not be sold in another.
There are 18 mandated different types of gasoline sold in the United
States.
The long-term outlook for oil is good. There's an increase in
oil-drilling technology and exploration. Oil as a source of energy has
been in decline. In 1980, oil was 45 percent of energy consumption;
today, it's 34 percent, yielding ground to natural gas, coal and nuclear
energy. Recently, the House of Representatives passed "The Deep Ocean
Energy Resources Act of 2006," which now awaits a Senate vote. Offshore
oil exploration has been banned since 1982, despite Department of the
Interior estimates that suggest the presence of 19 billion barrels of
oil and 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The House of
Representatives also passed the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act of
2006." Should these measures become law, our energy capacity will be
enhanced significantly.
America stands alone in the world as the only nation that has placed
a substantial amount of its domestic oil and natural gas potential
off-limits. That reflects the awesome control that radical
environmentalists have over Congress. With high fuel prices, Americans
might be ready to put an end to that control.
Dr. Walter E.
Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at
George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
|
Sustainable
oil?
Posted: May 25, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
by Chris
Bennett
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana lies a mostly submerged
mountain, the top of which is known as Eugene Island. The portion underwater
is an eerie-looking, sloping tower jutting up from the depths of the Gulf of
Mexico, with deep fissures and perpendicular faults which spontaneously spew
natural gas. A significant reservoir of crude oil was discovered nearby in
the late '60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330 was busily producing
about 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil.
By the late '80s, the platform's production had slipped to less than
4,000 barrels per day, and was considered pumped out. Done. Suddenly, in
1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves which
had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the '70s, were recalculated at
400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological age of the new
oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the '70s.
Analysis of seismic recordings revealed the presence of a "deep fault" at
the base of the Eugene Island reservoir which was gushing up a river of oil
from some deeper and previously unknown source.
Similar results were seen at other Gulf of Mexico oil wells. Similar
results were found in the Cook Inlet oil fields in Alaska. Similar results
were found in oil fields in Uzbekistan. Similarly in the Middle East, where
oil exploration and extraction have been underway for at least the last 20
years, known reserves have doubled. Currently there are somewhere in the
neighborhood of 680 billion barrels of Middle East reserve oil.
Creating that much oil would take a big pile of dead dinosaurs and
fermenting prehistoric plants. Could there be another source for crude oil?
An intriguing theory now permeating oil company research staffs suggests
that crude oil may actually be a natural inorganic product, not a stepchild
of unfathomable time and organic degradation. The theory suggests there may
be huge, yet-to-be-discovered reserves of oil at depths that dwarf current
world estimates.
The theory is simple: Crude oil forms as a natural inorganic process
which occurs between the mantle and the crust, somewhere between 5 and 20
miles deep. The proposed mechanism is as follows:
- Methane (CH4) is a common molecule found in quantity throughout our
solar system – huge concentrations exist at great depth in the Earth.
At the mantle-crust interface, roughly 20,000 feet beneath the
surface, rapidly rising streams of compressed methane-based gasses hit
pockets of high temperature causing the condensation of heavier
hydrocarbons. The product of this condensation is commonly known as crude
oil.
Some compressed methane-based gasses migrate into pockets and
reservoirs we extract as "natural gas."
In the geologically "cooler," more tectonically stable regions around
the globe, the crude oil pools into reservoirs.
In the "hotter," more volcanic and tectonically active areas, the oil
and natural gas continue to condense and eventually to oxidize, producing
carbon dioxide and steam, which exits from active volcanoes.
Periodically, depending on variations of geology and Earth movement,
oil seeps to the surface in quantity, creating the vast oil-sand deposits
of Canada and Venezuela, or the continual seeps found beneath the Gulf of
Mexico and Uzbekistan.
Periodically, depending on variations of geology, the vast, deep pools
of oil break free and replenish existing known reserves of oil.
There are a number of observations across the oil-producing regions of
the globe that support this theory, and the list of proponents begins with
Mendelev (who created the periodic table of elements) and includes Dr.Thomas
Gold (founding director of Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and
Space Research) and Dr. J.F. Kenney of Gas Resources Corporations, Houston,
Texas.
In his 1999 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere," Dr. Gold presents compelling
evidence for inorganic oil formation. He notes that geologic structures
where oil is found all correspond to "deep earth" formations, not the
haphazard depositions we find with sedimentary rock, associated fossils or
even current surface life.
He also notes that oil extracted from varying depths from the same oil
field have the same chemistry – oil chemistry does not vary as fossils vary
with increasing depth. Also interesting is the fact that oil is found in
huge quantities among geographic formations where assays of prehistoric life
are not sufficient to produce the existing reservoirs of oil. Where then did
it come from?
Another interesting fact is that every oil field throughout the world has
outgassing helium. Helium is so often present in oil fields that helium
detectors are used as oil-prospecting tools. Helium is an inert gas known to
be a fundamental product of the radiological decay or uranium and thorium,
identified in quantity at great depths below the surface of the earth, 200
and more miles below. It is not found in meaningful quantities in areas that
are not producing methane, oil or natural gas. It is not a member of the
dozen or so common elements associated with life. It is found throughout the
solar system as a thoroughly inorganic product.
Even more intriguing is evidence that several oil reservoirs around the
globe are refilling themselves, such as the Eugene Island reservoir – not
from the sides, as would be expected from cocurrent organic reservoirs, but
from the bottom up.
Dr. Gold strongly believes that oil is a "renewable, primordial soup
continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and
tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is
attached by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back
to the dinosaurs."
Smaller oil companies and innovative teams are using this theory to
justify deep oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, among other
locations, with some success. Dr. Kenney is on record predicting that parts
of Siberia contain a deep reservoir of oil equal to or exceeding that
already discovered in the Middle East.
Could this be true?
In August 2002, in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(US)," Dr. Kenney published a paper, which had a partial title of "The
genesis of hydrocarbons and the origin of petroleum." Dr. Kenney and
three Russian coauthors conclude:
The Hydrogen-Carbon system does not spontaneously evolve
hydrocarbons at pressures less than 30 Kbar, even in the most favorable
environment. The H-C system evolves hydrocarbons under pressures found in
the mantle of the Earth and at temperatures consistent with that
environment.
He was quoted as stating that "competent physicists, chemists, chemical
engineers and men knowledgeable of thermodynamics have known that natural
petroleum does not evolve from biological materials since the last quarter
of the 19th century."
Deeply entrenched in our culture is the belief that at some point in the
relatively near future we will see the last working pump on the last
functioning oil well screech and rattle, and that will be that. The end of
the Age of Oil. And unless we find another source of cheap energy, the world
will rapidly become a much darker and dangerous place.
If Dr. Gold and Dr. Kenney are correct, this "the end of the world as we
know it" scenario simply won't happen. Think about it ... while not
inexhaustible, deep Earth reserves of inorganic crude oil and commercially
feasible extraction would provide the world with generations of low-cost
fuel. Dr. Gold has been quoted saying that current worldwide reserves of
crude oil could be off by a factor of over 100.
A Hedberg Conference, sponsored by the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists, was scheduled to discuss and publicly debate this issue. Papers
were solicited from interested academics and professionals. The conference
was scheduled to begin June 9, 2003, but was canceled at the last minute. A
new date has yet to be set.
Federal Triangle: Petroleum—A Renewable Resource?
By Barry Ashby
It
seems many geologists are being petty, arguing over facts that have yet to
yield answers about crude oil. The mid July 04 Hedberg Conference by
American Association of Petroleum Geologists again discussed biogenic versus
abiotic origins of hydrocarbons, an interesting and very significant
industrial issue. At current rates of world consumption (over 26 billion
barrels a year) and with 80% coming from fields discovered before 1973, end
of supply is always a concern because proven reserves are only 1,213 billion
barrels, 75% of which is in 370 fields worldwide. It is projected that
production rates will peak in 2037 unless new reserves are found and sharply
decline thereafter.
Then along comes Dr. Thomas Gold, professor emeritus at Cornell and an
astronomer no less, who says not to worry. Petroleum is a renewable resource
made deep in the earth by inorganic processes (abiotic — an idea first
proposed by Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov in 1757 who called it “rock
oil”) and does not come from piles of dead dinosaurs and fermenting leaves
(biogenic). The conventional wisdom of petroleum geologists has been
offended and most of them are steamed.
Crude oil is a primordial soup but not of biologic origin, says Dr. Gold,
forming under great heat and pressure in the deep biosphere and hydrocarbons
we now know are common on planetary bodies. The abiotic theory is that
methane, the simplest carbon molecule (CH4) we call natural gas, is formed
from carbonate rocks and water at depths of 5 to 20 miles, at pressures of
30 to 45 kilobars (441 to 662 ksi), and temperatures approaching 800˚C
(1470˚F). Then the methane condenses into heavier hydrocarbons we call
petroleum, collecting in subterranean pools. Most geologists agree so far;
you can make oil artificially with these conditions. However the abiotic
theory as a natural event is different, supported by these facts:
High oil quantities are found in locations where assays of prehistoric life
are not sufficient to have produced the existing reserve.
Oil produced from varying depths from the same field has the same chemistry
and does not vary as the fossil life changes with depth at these same spots.
Every oil field outgases helium, which does not appear in meaningful
quantity in any other venue, and is a thoroughly stable, inorganic gas that
is a product of radiologic decay of rocks appearing at great depths within
the Earth mantle.
The abiotic theory is rejected by geologists who cite these facts:
Commercial oil fields produce a low content of C-13 isotope in molecules
because plant life has available and absorbs the common C-12 isotope;
deposits of deep methane have a higher content of the less common (1% of all
carbon) C-13 atom.
Petroleum deposits occur mainly in horizontal, near-surface reservoirs.
Actually, it may well be that both protagonists for their cause (antagonists
if you prefer) have strength in their arguments. It is known that
hydrocarbons migrate within the Earth’s crust as witnessed by production at
Eugene Island in the Gulf of Mexico 80 miles south of Louisiana. In 1973
when discovered, it produced 15,000 bpd but dwindled to 4,000 bpd by 1989.
Inexplicably it resumed output to 13,000 bpd but has confounded geologists
because current production is of a significantly different (newer) geologic
age than yesteryear. Abiogenic proponents say it is being refilled from
beneath the formation and that as oil migrates upward; it is attacked by
bacteria that alter its appearance. It is known that such bacteria (hyperthermophiles)
live at great depths, recorded in Alaska at 4.2 km and in Sweden at 5.2 km
(2.6 and 3.2 miles) below the surface.
There has been a long history of this argument. Mendeleyev, who discovered
the Periodic table, said in 1870 the same thing offered in 1962 by Sir
Robert Robinson of Britain’s Royal Society that “petroleum is a primordial
hydrocarbon to which biological products have been added.” That’s quite
similar to what Dr. Gold is touting and is of enormous importance due to
geopolitics and economic impacts of the highly inelastic supply and demand
system existing in the world. If abiotic petroleum formation is true, how
much reserve really exists on Earth, and more importantly, is human
consumption depleting supply faster than replenishment?
It will be interesting to hear what the Hedberg Conference determined, if
any conclusions emerge. It might also be appropriate to remember the
adage—actually the warning—my father taught me: “It’s the things we know for
certain that just ain’t so.”
Barry Ashby - Washington Editor, Industrial Heating
Science Frontiers
ONLINE
No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999
The Mystery of Eugene Island 330
Eugene Island is a submerged mountain in the Gulf of
Mexico about 80 miles off the Louisiana coast. The landscape of Eugene
Island is riven with deep fissures and faults from which spew spontaneous
belches of gas and oil. Up on the surface, a platform designated Eugene
Island 330 began producing about 15,000 barrels of oil per day in the
early 1970s. By 1989, the flow had dwindled to 4,000 barrels per day.
Then, suddenly, production zoomed to 13,000 barrels. In addition,
estimated reserves rocketed from 60 to 400 million barrels. Even more
anomalous is the discovery that the geological age of today's oil is quite
different from that recovered 10 years ago. What's going on under the Gulf
of Mexico?
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the oil
reservoir at Eugene Island is rapidly refilling itself from "some
continuous source miles below the earth's surface." In support of this
surmise, analysis of seismic records revealed a deep fault which "was
gushing oil like a garden hose."
The deep-seated oil source at Eugene Island strongly
supports T. Gold's theory about The Deep Hot Biosphere. Gold holds:
"that oil is actually a renewable, primordial syrup
continually manufactured by the earth under ultra hot conditions and
tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it
is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin
dating back to the dinosaurs."
The apparent deep-seated oil source at Eugene Island and
Gold's ideas make petroleum engineers wonder about a similar situation at
the seemingly inexhaustible oil fields of the Middle East.
"The Middle East has more than doubled its reserves in
the past 20 years, despite half a century of intense exploitation and
relatively few new discoveries. It would take a pretty big pile of dead
dinosaurs and prehistoric plants to account for the estimated 660
billion barrels of oil in the region, notes Norman Hyne, a professor at
the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. "Off the-wall theories often turn
out to be right," he says."
(Cooper, Christopher; "It's No Crude Joke: This Oil
Field Grows Even as It's Tapped," Wall Street Journal, April 16,
1999. Cr. C. Casale.)
From
Science
Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999. © 1999-2000 William R. Corliss
Wall Street Journal Article
About The Origins Of Crude Oil
Odd Reservoir Off Louisiana Prods
Oil Experts to Seek a Deeper Meaning
By CHRISTOPHER COOPER
Staff Reporter of THE
WALL STREET
JOURNAL
April 16, 1999
HOUSTON -- Something mysterious is going on at Eugene
Island 330.
Production at the oil field, deep in the Gulf of Mexico
off the coast of Louisiana, was supposed to have declined years ago. And for
a while, it behaved like any normal field: Following its 1973 discovery,
Eugene Island 330's output peaked at about 15,000 barrels a day. By 1989,
production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.
Then suddenly -- some say almost inexplicably -- Eugene
Island's fortunes reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co.,
is now producing 13,000 barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed
to more than 400 million barrels from 60 million. Stranger still, scientists
studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological
age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago.
Fill 'er Up
All of which has led some scientists to a radical theory:
Eugene Island is rapidly refilling itself, perhaps from some continuous
source miles below the Earth's surface. That, they say, raises the
tantalizing possibility that oil may not be the limited resource it is
assumed to be.
"It kind of blew me away," says Jean Whelan, a geochemist
and senior researcher from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in
Massachusetts. Connected to Woods Hole since 1973, Dr. Whelan says she
considered herself a traditional thinker until she encountered the
phenomenon in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, she says, "I believe there is a huge
system of oil just migrating" deep underground.
Conventional wisdom says the world's supply of oil is
finite, and that it was deposited in horizontal reservoirs near the surface
in a process that took millions of years. Since the economies of entire
countries ride on the fundamental notion that oil reserves are exhaustible,
any contrary evidence "would change the way people see the game, turn the
world view upside down," says Daniel Yergin, a petroleum futurist and
industry consultant in Cambridge, Mass. "Oil and renewable resource are not
words that often appear in the same sentence."
Mideast Mystery
Doomsayers to the contrary, the world contains far more
recoverable oil than was believed even 20 years ago. Between 1976 and 1996,
estimated global oil reserves grew 72%, to 1.04 trillion barrels. Much of
that growth came in the past 10 years, with the introduction of computers to
the oil patch, which made drilling for oil more predictable.
Still, most geologists are hard-pressed to explain why the
world's greatest oil pool, the Middle East, has more than doubled its
reserves in the past 20 years, despite half a century of intense
exploitation and relatively few new discoveries. It would take a pretty big
pile of dead dinosaurs and prehistoric plants to account for the estimated
660 billion barrels of oil in the region, notes Norman Hyne, a professor at
the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. "Off-the-wall theories often turn out
to be right," he says.
Even some of the most staid U.S. oil companies find the
Eugene Island discoveries intriguing. "These reservoirs are refilling with
oil," acknowledges David Sibley, a Chevron Corp. geologist who has
monitored the work at Eugene Island.
Mr. Sibley cautions, however, that much research remains
to be done on the source of that oil. "At this point, it's not black and
white. It's gray," he says.
Although the world has been drilling for oil for
generations, little is known about the nature of the resource or the
underground activities that led to its creation. And because even
conservative estimates say known oil reserves will last 40 years or more,
most big oil companies haven't concerned themselves much with hunting for
deep sources like the reservoirs scientists believe may exist under Eugene
Island.
Economics never hindered the theorists, however. One,
Thomas Gold, a respected astronomer and professor emeritus at Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y., has held for years that oil is actually a
renewable, primordial syrup continually manufactured by the Earth under
ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates
toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have an
organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs, he says.
While many scientists discount Prof. Gold's theory as
unproved, "it made a believer out of me," says Robert Hefner, chairman of
Seven Seas Petroleum Inc., a Houston firm that specializes in ultradeep
drilling and has worked with the professor on his experiments. Seven Seas
continues to use "conventional" methods in seeking reserves, though the
halls of the company often ring with dissent. "My boss and I yell at each
other all the time about these theories," says Russ Cunningham, a geologist
and exploration manager for Seven Seas who isn't sold on Prof. Gold's ideas.
Energy Vacuum
Knowing that clever theories don't fill the gas tank,
Roger Anderson, an oceanographer and executive director of Columbia
University's Energy Research Center in New York, proposed studying the
behavior of oil in a reservoir in hopes of finding a new way to help
companies vacuum up what their drilling was leaving behind.
He focused on Eugene Island, a kidney-shaped subsurface
mountain that slopes steeply into the Gulf depths. About 80 miles off the
Louisiana coast, the underwater landscape surrounding Eugene Island is
otherworldly, cut with deep fissures and faults that spontaneously belch gas
and oil. In 1985, as he stood on the deck of a shrimp boat towing an
oil-sniffing contraption through the area, Dr. Anderson pondered Eugene
Island's strange history. "Migrating oil and anomalous production. I sort of
linked the two ideas together," he says.
Five years later, the U.S. Department of Energy ponied up
$10 million to investigate the Eugene Island geologic formation, and
especially the oddly behaving field at its crest. A consortium of companies
leasing chunks of the formation, including such giants as Chevron, Exxon
Corp. and Texaco Corp., matched the federal grant.
Time and Space
The Eugene Island researchers began their investigation
about the same time that 3-D seismic technology was introduced to the oil
business, allowing geologists to see promising reservoirs as a cavern in the
ground rather than as a line on a piece of paper.
Taking the technology one step further, Dr. Anderson used
a powerful computer to stack 3-D images of Eugene Island on top of one
another. That resulted in a 4-D image, showing not only the reservoir in
three spatial dimensions, but showing also the movement of its contents over
time as PennzEnergy siphoned out oil.
What Dr. Anderson noticed as he played his time-lapse
model was how much oil PennzEnergy had missed over the years. The remaining
crude, surrounded by water and wobbling like giant globs of Jell-O in the
computer model, gave PennzEnergy new targets as it reworked Eugene Island.
What captivated scientists, though, was a deep fault in
the bottom corner of the computer scan that was gushing oil like a garden
hose. "We could see the stream," Dr. Anderson says. "It wasn't even debated
that it was happening."
Woods Hole's Dr. Whelan, invited by Dr. Anderson to join
the Eugene Island investigation, postulated that superheated methane gas --
a compound that is able to absorb vast amounts of oil -- was carrying crude
from a deep source below. The age of the crude pushed through the stream,
and its hotter temperature helped support that theory. The scientists
decided to drill into the fault.
Unlucky Strike
As prospectors, the scientists were fairly lucky. As
researchers they weren't. The first well they drilled hit natural gas, a
pocket so pressurized "that it scared us," Dr. Anderson says; that well is
still producing. The second stab, however, collapsed the fault. "Some oil
flowed. I have 15 gallons of it in my closet," Dr. Anderson says. But it
wasn't successful enough to advance Dr. Whelan's theory.
A third well was drilled at a spot on an adjacent lease,
where the fault disappeared from seismic view. The researchers missed the
stream but hit a fair-size reservoir, one that is still producing.
It was here, in 1995, that the scientists ran out of grant
money and PennzEnergy lost interest in continuing. "I'm not discounting the
possibility that there is oil moving into these reservoirs," says William
Van Wie, a PennzEnergy senior vice president. "I question only the rate."
Dr. Whelan hasn't lost interest, however, and is seeking
to investigate further the mysterious vents and seeps. While industry
geologists have generally assumed such eruptions are merely cracks in a
shallow oil reservoir, they aren't sure. Noting that many of the seeps are
occurring in deep water, rather than in the relative shallows of the
continental shelf, Dr. Whelan wonders if they may link a deeper source.
This summer, a tiny submarine chartered by a Louisiana
State University researcher will attempt to install a series of measuring
devices on vents near the Eugene Island property. Dr. Whelan hopes this will
give her some idea of how quickly Eugene Island is refilling. "We need to
know if we're talking years or if we're talking hundreds of thousands of
years," she says.
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