Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
BP pushes technical limits to tap extreme fields
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/texas/article/BP-pushes-technical-limits-to-tap-extreme-fields-5036765.phpBP pushes technical limits to tap extreme fields
By JONATHAN FAHEY, AP Energy Writer : December 5, 2013 : Updated: December 5, 2013 8:02am
HOUSTON (AP) — BP's strategy after the Deepwater Horizon tragedy: Go deeper.
BP is leading an industry-wide push to develop technology that can retrieve oil from formations that are so deep under the sea floor, and under such high pressure and temperature, that conventional equipment would melt or be crushed by the conditions.
One BP field in the Gulf of Mexico, called Tiber, makes the Macondo field that the Deepwater Horizon rig was probing look like simple puddle of oil. It is thought to hold 20 times the amount of oil as Macondo. At 35,000 feet below the sea floor — 6.6 miles into the earth's crust — it is about twice as deep.
There's an extraordinary amount of oil in similar discoveries around the world, several of which are controlled by BP. But BP first must figure out how to get it. New equipment, including blowout preventers far stronger than the one that failed on the Deepwater Horizon, must be developed. Then BP must convince regulators it can tap this oil safely.
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Shell's record-breaking Prelude takes to the water
A floating vessel that is longer than the Empire State Building is high has taken to the water for the first time.
The hull of Shell's Prelude was floated in South Korea.
When fully built, Prelude will be the largest floating facility ever created, weighing more than 600,000 tonnes.
It would be used to help in the production of natural gas from 2017, Shell said, and would operate for 25 years off Australia's north-west coast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25213845
A floating vessel that is longer than the Empire State Building is high has taken to the water for the first time.
The hull of Shell's Prelude was floated in South Korea.
When fully built, Prelude will be the largest floating facility ever created, weighing more than 600,000 tonnes.
It would be used to help in the production of natural gas from 2017, Shell said, and would operate for 25 years off Australia's north-west coast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25213845
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13709293
Party like there's no tomorrow!
> New equipment, including blowout preventers far stronger than the one that
> failed on the Deepwater Horizon, must be developed. Then BP must convince
> regulators it can tap this oil safely.
Then they'll rent out their negotiators to Tepco ready for the restart of Fukushima 1-3
followed by a quick jolly over to Jerusalem for some talks about a boundary issue that
seems to be going on around there ...
Seriously though, twice as deep as Macondo and they are going for it?
