BF2S Forums Chevron strikes oil in a big way

This is miniscule in comparison to the known oil shale reserves in Utah/Montana/Colorado.

http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?pid=727513#p727513

Although the extent of this new Gulf field is unknown, we will know much more a year from now.

This is nice to know.  My grandmother has about 10,000 or so shares of Chevron stock that goes to my brother and I when she dies....she's 93 now....I think she's gonna live forever.

beerface702 wrote:

18 billion barrels they think.probably more later

just a drop in the bucket. considering we use like 40 billion a year or something

The U.S. consumes about 146 billion gallons a year.

Where did you hear 18 billion ?

Last edited by Kmarion (2006-09-06 03:32:10)

ts-pulsar wrote:

ShotYourSix wrote:

This is miniscule in comparison to the known oil shale reserves in Utah/Montana/Colorado.

http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?pid=727513#p727513

Although the extent of this new Gulf field is unknown, we will know much more a year from now.

Oil Shale is a pain in the ass to refine is the problem though, it's still not really economically viable to start going after the Oil Shale.  They'll only go after it when it becomes the same price or cheaper than your regular oil, either through technological improvements or going after regular oil deposits become too expensive.

Actually, development of shale oil extraction processes began a few years back. There's a few new methods arising that we'll eventually see in common use.

Wow - I think my SUV just went back up in trade in value! 

I'd heard about these technolgies, but last I'd heard they were still in there infancy, and I wasn't expecting results till about 10 years from now.

What about the oil from trash. Like a speed up of time practicly. Its already being done out in Nevada or Arizona and the price is 48$ per barrel and they are turning in a profit.

PuckMercury wrote:

Personally, I think this is bad news.  I rather thought the increasingly scarce supply of oil would spur much needed change in the global community's attitude toward energy generation and transportation fuel sources.  Rather than treat that as a scare and accepting this new supply as a band-aid, I think we'll just put our collective heads back in the dirt ... or the Gulf of Mexico - you know, whatever.

The sooner we move to more nuclear based energy the better, its going to happen, or we'll just go bankrupt.  Pending some other discovery........

PuckMercury wrote:

agreed, and more than simply power generation and distribution, an alternative for power generation on a personal scale (ie cars) is also very much needed.

+1

Pug wrote:

So I sent this link to my Pop - he's retired, worked 30 or so years in exploration.

His response:
"Interesting on the reaction to the press release - oil futures market was impacted.  Shows how little people really know about the oil business (either that or I don't understand the futures market).  Chevron will be lucky to get this stuff on stream by 2014 or so...guess I didn't understand that the oil futures market extended 8 or 9 years out.  Stupid me, I thought that it was just for the next several months.
I would like to see some economics on the project.  What's the discounted rate of return on $4 billion invested in over the period, say 2004 to 2009 with the first oil produced in 2014?  Total cash flow would be negative until 2018?  Are the banks really lining up to finance this project?
Prudhoe Bay, discovered in 1967 or so had first production in 1978 or so...I think that the economics that were run on that field in 1985 or so showed a discounted cash flow rate of return of about 1%.  You get better rates than that on any lousy CD...but you can't run car on CDs...

So in other words - it's there like the oil shale...waiting for the price of oil to increase to make it economically feasible...

Yes no doubt the time table for this to reach the pumps is quite some time away. It does not make this a major impact on not only the oil market but the entire industry. I could list all the ways but chances are you already know them. They are now saying today (Sept 7) that the believe there are 3 areas of around 16 billion barrels located in the particular area. We do infarct need to get off of oil of course. It's not that each American uses alot of oil. I think the average is somewhere around 4 or 5 gallons each person. The problem is every person is using that much.

wow thats a lto of money. i also heard that we wont feels the affects of this for some time now. so dont expect gas prices to drasticly drop within the next year or so..

Kmarion wrote:

Yes no doubt the time table for this to reach the pumps is quite some time away. It does not make this a major impact on not only the oil market but the entire industry. I could list all the ways but chances are you already know them. They are now saying today (Sept 7) that the believe there are 3 areas of around 16 billion barrels located in the particular area. We do infarct need to get off of oil of course. It's not that each American uses alot of oil. I think the average is somewhere around 4 or 5 gallons each person. The problem is every person is using that much.

Unfortunately I know more than I need to know about the industry.  (Finding, exploring, retrival, refining, market, reserves....).  If you are talking about conservation - conservation ain't going to happen until gas gets expensive.  It's still cheap - we are really whining about the current prices because it's cutting into our disposable income.

Double the price and then we're talking. 

Yet hybrid cars are a joke.  Here's why: The hybrids have a higher sticker price than the gas guzzler.  It's high enough that if you average 15k miles / year at current prices you'd have to own the car for like eight years to get savings (Hybrid price + gas used) - (Guzzler price + gas used).  The break even for five years is about $6/gallon or 25k miles/year at current pricing.  So what's the $$$ incentive for switching over - oh yeah...the future.  It makes me believe the car companies are using "Green" cars to make more "Green".

The government encouraged hybrids - giving a tax break to the auto companies for the first 50,000? or so cars of the line - yet the companies jacked up the price anyway.  And the IRS gives individuals a token credit for owning one of these cars.  All I have to say is - politicians need to incorporate some long-term thinking and forget about the lobbying every once in a while...

Are we off topic yet?