I'm really not sure what to make of this news from New Tech Spy, as I haven't been able to confirm it:Scientists from Cornell University have discovered a massive amount of Oil off the coast of Louisiana.The find is some 60 billion barrels or 3 Times more than current US recoverable Oil of 20 Billion barrels, and would bring US total reserves to 80 billion barrels which is on par with Venezuela. In comparison to other finds around the world, this is twice the size of all Oil ever found in the North Sea and 6 times larger than the estimates of the Alaskan ANWR oil deposits.The article notes that the damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita makes recovery of the oil more problematic than it would have been in the past, but also list an unattributed quote saying "This is enough Oil to make the US self sufficient and make foreign Oil supply disruption a thing of the past.” Is it just me, or is that kind of thinking 1) scary as hell, and 2) typical of our tendency to want to push the problems of oil "addiction" down to further generations. Poster earthchangeII at Hugg (where I found the story) offers this positive take: "I'd love to get off fossil fuels yesterday! but dont really want a peak oil crisis to take away our chances of greening everything up!" Assuming this story is true as presented, I don't see it creating any incentive for Americans to "green up" -- remember what happened in the 80s when the price of oil dropped? All efforts at conservation and developing alternative sources fell by the wayside for all practical purposes. Now it would take 1-2 years to bring any of this oil to market -- is that enough time to make the most of the tipping point many of us see happening? We're not particularly patient in the States... Very interested in your thoughts...
The area is about 10,000 sq. miles in size, and was found under layers of salt domes by a new method of oil discovery known as “gas washing” . A process in which geologist are able to track the movement of oil deposits by the way they interact with the flow of natural gas. This method helps scientists to make extremely accurate 3D-seismic maps of deep underground oil deposits and mitigate the risk involved in drilling such deep under sea wells.
UPDATE: So I was just looking in the wrong place for confirmation... should have known to go straight to The Oil Drum... The word from Larry Cathles, the Cornell geologist mentioned in the New Tech Spy piece: this "was a bogus fabrication..." Should I take this post down...?
Categories: oil, gulfofmexico, discovery, peakoil, renewable, energy, tippingpoint, louisiana
