IRVING, TEXAS, April 23 -- Exxon Mobil Corporation announced today that its subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), has completed drilling of the Z-11 well, the longest measured depth extended-reach drilling (ERD) well in the world. Located on Sakhalin Island offshore Eastern Russia, the record-setting Z-11 achieved a total measured depth of 37,016 feet (11,282 meters) or over seven miles.
The multiphase Sakhalin-1 Project includes the Chayvo field which is located 5 to 7 miles (8 to 11 kilometers) offshore.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sakhalin 1: 7 Miles Deep
EXXONMOBIL ANNOUNCES DRILLING OF WORLD-RECORD WELL
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PEELING THE ONION DOWN TO THE BEDROCK
Sakhalin Island is a site of large scale investment -- somewhat tempered by Russian President Vladimir Putin's rough treatment of foreign investment as displayed by Royal-Dutch Shell being "bought out" by Gazprom.
But in terms of deep oil exploration, Sakhalin Island is a success.
The Chayvo field, which this deep well tapped into is producing significant amounts of oil from a basin some 37,000 feet deep.
Interesting questions arise. What kind of geological formation is this oil reservoir? Do oil geologists argue this was once a shallow seabed at a time of organic detritus deposition (of course geologists do)? If so, what is the composition of the oil in regards to the presence of daimondoids? What so-called bio-markers are present? When was this sedimentary formation thought to be laid down?
What kind of geologic process would take this from a shallow sea to 37,000 feet below the Earth's surface?
What does seem to be a recurring theme across various regions of oil exploration is the discovery of oil in ever deeper geologic strata. This phenomenon is akin to the peeling of an onion down to the crystalline basement rocks.
This does vindicate Koudryavstev's Rule: In giant oil field regions oil is found in the geologic strata or column down to the bedrock and beyond.
In short:
Where there's oil,
there's more oil.
Koudryavtsev was a Russian abiotic oil proponent.
Oil exploration has been on a steadily expanding continuum toward deeper water and deeper drilling, with more remote exploration sites, whether out to sea or in the inhospitable wilderness.
And while there are sub- crystalline basement oil finds, like the White Tiger oil field off Vietnam's coast, can the oil industry take the next big step: finding the 'mother-lode' in the sub-basement?
Whether on land or at sea, even beyond the continental shelf on the deep ocean plain.
But most likely, that will take finding at least a giant oil field, if not a super-giant oil field, and then going for broke -- piercing the mantel -- below the reservoir looking for the sub-basement mother-lode.
The history of the oil industry is a series of risk taking, and being rewarded!
KOUDRYAVTSEV'S RULE: COULD IT MEAN SMALLER FIELDS CAN PROVIDE DEEPER, LARGER REWARDS?
Reference,
Nikolai Koudryavtsev professional biograghy is available at the left hand column under Early Abiogenic Theorists
Giant oil fields signal the presence of petroleum down to the bedrock. But could smaller oil fields that produce only modest finds, yet are above significant tectonic faults, have larger undiscovered oil deposits at deeper levels in the geologic strata?
The answer seems to be yes. Oil deposits are only as big as the geologic trapping structures present to hold the crude oil. Exxon's find at Sakhalin Island proves the existence of deep oil trapping structures. It's entirely possible for smaller geologic structures to form on top of older, larger sedimentary structures formed in previous geologic ages.
Are there smaller oil fields that weren't explored deeper than the initial easy to reach shallow deposits? The answer is yes, although, that could be changing as oil companies realize that oil deposits go down to the bedrock.
Larger deposits can be found under smaller, already depleted oil fields, as well.
The oil industry has the Sakhalin Island oil discovery and Nikolai Kourdryavtsev, an early abiogenic oil proponent to thank.
Abiogenic oil theory helps gelogists to find more oil.
IS DEEP OIL TOO HOT TO TOUCH?
Brazil Oil Trapped By 500-Degree Heat, Salt Barrier (Bloomberg) Joe Carroll, April 28, 2008
500 degrees Fahrenheit is hot, apparently so hot that technology must be pressed beyond current capability; also the pressure is crushing. But ExxonMobil's Sakhalin-1 project is already producing deep oil, so there is reasonable prospects that technology can be advanced to recover the oil -- this oil is as deep as 32,000 feet below sea level.
Oil window? What oil window?
These are the challenges that face deep oil -- real challenges. There is ample opportunity for investment supported innovation.
An absolute necessity, for as Tina Vital, a Standard & Poors analyst said, "These challenges in the Brazilian offshore area are too great for any one company, or even country to be able to digest themselves."
A worthy warmup for the ultimate deep oil challenge -- piercing the crustal veil -- but hey, if this find turns out to have 33 billion barrels of oil as initially stated by the Petrobras spokeman that rings the bell.
The oil industry is ramping up, not just for deep oil, but ultra-deep oil. There's only one explanation for ultra-deep oil: Abiogenic.
ALASKA: DEEP-DRILLING FULL SPEED AHEAD
Reference,
WorldOil.com
Extreme drilling pushes RSS application to a new Alaskan limit, April 2008
(Direct link available at left-hand column under Online Magazines)
Deep-drilling has advanced to the point that the list of top 15 deep-drilling projects in Alaska are all over 20,000 feet deep, with one recent well over 25,000 feet deep.
And, the drilling technology is more technically efficient, so more economical. This has opened a new horizon on the North Slope of Alaska. Quietly, principles of abiogenic oil are being applied everyday to Alaskian oil production.
Technology advancement is making abiogenic oil more evident all the time.
DEEP WATER SEEPS: EVIDENCE OF ABIOGENIC PRINCIPLES APPLIED IN HUNT FOR OFFSHORE OIL
Reference,
WorldOil.com
Geology and Geophysics,
Seep-hunting in deepwater for frontier basin prospectivity assessment, April 2008
Oil seeps on land have been known about for thousands of years, perhaps even the origin of the mysterious "Greek Fire" which gave the Greeks strategic superiority over their rivals and enemies.
But now in the hunt for deep water oil, underwater seeps are featured prominently, along with the most advanced seismic imaging.
These seeps are literally where oil leaks out of a reservoir. The Cantarell super-giant oil field was located by a tell-tale oil slick on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
Why do underwater oil seeps point to abiogenic oil? One of the contentions of abiogenic oil theorists is that if these reservoirs were leaking for literally millions and millions of years, since the kerogen cracked into oil, according to the "fossil" theory of oil origin, by now, or long ago, the crude oil would have been exhausted, if it wasn't being continually resupplied to the reservoir from someplace else. Abiotic oil theory points to a source deep below in the mantel.
What this WorldOil article and others before it point to, is that no "momentous" announcement about abiotic oil will be made. Instead, drips and drabs of information will come out in the trade magazines, which over time will leave only one possibility left for the origin of oil: Abiogenic.
Finally, at some point, where a "critical mass" of information has been reached, oil geologists will begin stating that they "always" suspected that abiotic oil theory had merit, but the evidence was ambiguous, therefore, the proper course was to wait for more evidence to build up over time.
Okay, it's understood, that for oil geologists to openly shift to a new oil paradigm, some face saving technique has to be employed.
But the time is fast approaching, where failing to acknowledge abiogenic reality will be more damaging to credibility than openly employing abiogenic principles for oil geologists.
Because that will be the way to find oil. It will be necessary to employ abiotic principles to find oil in a way that can no longer be disguised with the old, outdated "fossil" theory of oil origin.
Abiogenic oil theory provides strategic superiority over competitors and rivals the same way "Greek Fire" gave Greeks superiority over rivals and enemies.
The time is now to start the paradigm shift.
WHEN EXXONMOBILE TALKS, PEOPLE LISTEN
Reference,
WorldOil.com
Columns, What's new in oil exploration,
Arthur Berman, Contributing Editor,
Winner's curse: The end of exploration for Exxonmobile, April 2008
(Direct link available at left-hand column under Online Magazines)
ExxonMobile is not just any oil company as everybody knows: It's the largest private oil company in the world. When it takes action, it's only after considered business judgment is applied, both on a financial and geologic basis.
ExxonMobile according to Mr. Berman in the above referenced column, is focussing on developing its already owned assets in North America, because the returns in the international arena have proved ephemeral. It's the old saying, "one in the hand is worth two in the bush," particularly, if that 'one in the hand' can be made into 'two in the hand'.
How does ExxonMobile propose to do this? Act on the abiogenic principle: Koudryavtsev's Rule. Where there's oil (and natural gas), there's more oil (and natural gas).
The column focuses on natrual gas, but the principles can be equally applied to crude oil as well.
The Piceance Basin in Texas is the object of advanced natural gas extraction techniques that increase recovery by a multiple order of magnitude.
ExxonMobile has been in Texas a very long time. Texas is the most intensely explored area in North America and possibly in the world. Yet over 100 years since Spindletop, oil is not exhausted, true, production has declined, but after a century of intense extraction that could be expected.
Rather, what is impressive is that after a century being the center of United States oil production, Texas still has large amounts of oil still in the ground.
The old ad said, "When E.F. Hutton talks...people listen." When ExxonMobile talks, people listen in oil investment community.
What is ExxonMobile saying? That oil and gas can be extracted in regions that have already been exploited. And how can that be? By applying Koudryavtsev's Rule that oil (and natural gas) exist in the geologic strata down to the bedrock. Almost all oil and gas in Texas, particularly in the early part of last century were extracted from shallow oil fields, but as modern oil finds have shown all over the world from Alaska's North Slope to the Gulf of Mexico, and on to Sakhalin Island, oil is being found at any depth geologic strata that has oil trapping structures.
ExxonMobile is going to take advantage of that empirical
realization to produce cheap oil, at the wellhead, and in turn, make a big profit from these already owned assets.
Abiogenic oil principles are guiding ExxonMobile's financial and exploring strategies: Shouldn't oil geologists sit up and take notice?
ROCKEFELLERS SIGNAL DISAGREEMENT WITH EXXONMOBILE
Reference,
Rockefellers Slam Exxon Over Alternatives, Climate (Bloomberg) Joe Carroll, April 30, 2008
ExxonMobile's CEO, Rex Tillerson is under fire from the Rockefeller family for not pushing 'alternatives' to crude oil. Never mind that ExxonMobile is in the petroleum business. Never mind that profits are up under Rex Tillerson's leadership.
What's going on here?
As previously commented on, ExxonMobile is focussing on maximizing oil and natural gas production from already owned assets, primarily in the United States.
Does this upset the Rockefellers?
Regrettably, the Rockefellers aren't the first group intent to limit oil exploration and production in the United States.
With their call for 'alternative' energy developement, including wind power, maybe the Rockefellers should call for T. Boone Pickens to run ExxonMobile, see post, The Lies of Kenneth Deffeyes, October 3, 2007, comment #5, The Contradiction of Mathew Simmons, April 19, 2008.
And, while it's hard to know exactly what the thinking is behind the Rockefeller demands, the results would be obvious: Restrict ExxonMobile's exploration and development of petroleum.
There's only so much money for investment. If some of that money is diverted to 'alternative' energy sources that leaves less for ExxonMobile's core business: Petroleum production and marketing.
This hostile action should send shudders through share holders looking for maximum return on investment. It also should concern the wider oil industry that an elite family, decendants of the company's founder, no less, want to restrict oil production in the United States.
How widespread is this sentiment in elite circles?
ExxonMobile's stated company objective of increasing its domestic production, principally in the state of Texas, is important for ExxonMobile, but also for abiogenic oil theory, because their prospecting would utilize abiogenic principles.
Surely, allowing their holdings to lie fallow is not in ExxonMobile's best interest or the oil industry's as a whole.
Slim Pickens is bad policy. Investors have to defeat the Rockefeller family's designs to restrict oil production.
Hi Anaconda, thank you so much for the comments, do you have contact info?
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