Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Workers prepare pipes on the
Deepwater Pathfinder
, an oil drillship that sits
twelve miles off the US coast near Galveston. It was designed to operate in
water depths of up to ten thousand feet.
water is part of Kashagan's problem. Winds from the Kazakh steppes have
a powerful effect on the water level - the same as if you blow on a saucer of
water - and in the harsh winter, wind-driven ice piles up against the rigs.
Normally, however, the bigger offshore oil reserves and problems are to
be found in deeper water. According to the International Energy Agency,
estimates of recoverable conventional oil lying in deepwater (depths of
400-1500 metres) or ultra-deepwater (deeper than 1500 metres) range
from 160bn barrels to 300bn barrels. Most of these reserves are in the
waters of Brazil, Angola, Nigeria and the US. And progress in access-
ing these reserves has been surprisingly fast. Deepwater oil production
went from less than 200,000 b/d in 1995 to more than 5m b/d by 2007.
Ultra-deepwater production only began in 2004 and is expected to reach
200,000 b/d by 2010. Chevron in particular has been breaking records in
the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of the deepwater investment drilling was in the golden triangle
of North America, Brazil and West Africa. Recent discoveries in the
