"... Additional regulation in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could boost the cost of drilling new oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico by 10 percent, Norway's Statoil said on Monday. The company on Friday won its first drilling permit since the accident involving BP last year. It was awarded a licence to drill a new well 7,134 feet (2,174 metres) deep in the waters off Texas, the sixth such permit awarded since the accident. ..." From C. Schwab's Email to me today (I own shares in Statoil, Total, and several other oil producers, but not BP).
new bottom of ocean oil leak, probably harder to stop: "... A leak at an offshore Chevron drilling site off the coast of Brazil may have dumped around 110,000 gallons of oil into the Atlantic Ocean, Brazilian officials said Friday {yesterday}. Officials think between 8,400 to 13,800 gallons of oil leaked each day from Nov. 8 through Tuesday, Ibama {Brazil's EPA} said in a statement on its website. Chevron had said that only 16,800 to 27,300 gallons in total leaked into the ocean. Officials are still investigating the cause of the leak, which has been almost entirely contained, but the Ibama statement said it was a result of drilling. Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/ne...ffshore-chevron-site-in-brazil/#ixzz1eBJYhW6O ..." or same at: Quote from: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/19/major-oil-leak-at-offshore-chevron-site-in-brazil/ Billy T comments:Today newspapers in Brazil are giving some more scary detils: It seems that the leak is coming not from the well but about 130 meters from the well, where there is now a crack in the ocean floor, 300 meters long and 1200 meters deep. I speculate that this crack was caused by the removal of oil making new stresses in the rocks. If that is the case it will be much harder to plug than BP's well was. How do you put concrete into a 300 m by 1200 m crack at 1,200 meters below the sea surface and make sure there does not remain a leakage path? Once you have tried and failed - what do you do? Nuclear bomb to briefly liquefy rock and concrete? No, that is too likely to just make more cracks a little farther way with the shock waves. Fortunately, for Brazil the now 168 square kilometer and growing oil slick is being blown towards Africa, at least for now. IF it moves west, it will hit Rio State's beaches. Leak is due East and about 130Km (less than 100miles) from Campos, RJ* and that is less than 100 miles north of Rio de Janeiro (the city). Chevron stock has lost more than 5% of its value at end of last week, but probalby will lose 10% more when markets open on Monday. If the leak was caused by the well and is from a 300 meter long (longer than a US football field) and deep crack, which may still be growing, this is very bad news for many - especially Chevron share holders. ------------ * If you don't have map telling where Campos is, it is at the most eastern point of Brazil.
Today's report (from chevron) much better: " Chevron Corp. (CVX), the second-largest U.S. energy company, said it is reducing the amount of oil leaking from a project off the coast of Brazil after plugging the source of the spill on Nov. 13. The amount of oil leaking from fissures on the ocean floor is less than the “hundreds of barrels” that gushed during the first days after a drilling incident on Nov. 7, said George Buck, the head of Chevron’s operations in Brazil. More than 10 barrels a day of “residual oil” in the rocks around the well is still leaking, and the rate continues to decline, Buck said. “The majority of this event has been over for several days,” Buck told reporters in Rio de Janeiro. “We know we stopped the flow at the reservoir.” ...Chevron underestimated the amount of pressure at a reservoir at the project about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Rio, Buck said. The well suffered a “kick” of pressure when it reached the reservoir, causing oil to leak to fissures on the ocean floor. Chevron cemented shut the section of well above the reservoir and continues to work on sealing it, Buck said. ..." From: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...l-oil-spill-reduced-to-residual-seepage.html#
"... Chevron has been temporarily suspended from ‘all drilling activities’ in Brazil by the country’s oil regulator – Agencia Nacional do Petroleo or ANP – following an oil leak 74 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The agency’s diktat will remain in effect until it identifies the causes of the spill and considers it safe to resume drilling. Chevron has already been slapped with a fine of R$50 million ($28 million) by Brazil's environmental regulator. ... Chevron’s most recent estimates put the size of the leak at approximately 2,400 barrels, or 100,800 gallons, up from earlier estimates of 400 to 650 barrels. The company has acknowledged that it had miscalculatied the pressure and rock strength in the exploratory well. ..." From: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/65314/Chevron's Brazil Dream Sours Billy T's trick question: Where is the most expensive oil on earth? Answer: Floating in the south Pacific: $28E6 / (~500 barrels) = 56E3 = $56,000/ barrel
