The San Diego Union Tribune had a (slightly long) article on the state of oil in the world today. We like to slap the blinders on because of the new find in the gulf and lower prices. Petroleum has many more important uses than just gasoline production. It seems that as a species, we continue to be mostly self destructive. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20...1c07barrel.html
Chevron just discover a huge oil field in the middle of the ocean just off of the gulf of Mexico. As soon as we start pumping, we will have so much oil that we don't know what to do with it all. We may even export some back to arab and sell it cheaper than they're now.
Now that petroleum is expensive, several companies are looking deep on the continental shelves, and finding it. However production costs from deeper wells will be high, and all that I have seen is so-called 'heavy oil' with higher refining costs as well. The Gulf of Mexico finds (in US, Mexican, and Cuban territorial waters) are a special case though, because hurricanes are frequent there. So you have to build stronger and anticipate some extra down-time. I don't think that Venezuela has 'gone deep' yet because they are still making money off the shallow stuff.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Sep 7 2006, 01:50 PM) [snapback]315924[/snapback]</div> From what I read it has to be at least $40/barrel and I think a lot of people could go for that. Seeing as how lately its been hovering around $70/barrel. Wildkow
