Happy Independence Day. Now Americans can compete with Cuba and China: Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Fla. coast
As petroleum prices soar, 4 companies begin costly quest for oil and gas off Florida's coast
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.
No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981.
The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle -- an area that had been covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In exchange, the state got a no-drilling buffer along the rest of its beaches.
Florida may turn out to be a prelude for other coastal states. If oil or natural gas deposits are found in the newly opened region, experts say it could further the push to explore other once-protected areas everywhere. It also could be a rallying point for critics, who say the new exploration isn't a license to expand exploration.
With gas topping $4 a gallon, recent polls show Americans, Floridians included, more supportive of drilling in protected areas. Some politicians -- including Gov. Charlie Crist -- have switched sides.
"We think the public is way out ahead of the politicians on these issues. People are more open to (offshore drilling) now," said Tom Moskitis, spokesman for the American Gas Association, a trade group.
At the same time, oil companies, driven by the record energy price, are more willing to risk $100 million or more to begin exploring new regions. The Interior Department estimates there could be 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the 574 million acres of federal coastal waters that are now off-limits.
Drilling activity off the Florida Panhandle has started and sputtered for decades. Some companies had leases to drill off the Panhandle before the 1981 moratorium. They were grandfathered in when the moratorium passed because they were already actively exploring in their lease areas. They continued their activity off and on into the early 1990s.
In March, four companies -- Australia-based BHP Billiton Petroleum Deepwater Inc., Houston-based Anadarko E&P Co., Shell Offshore Inc. and Italian oil and natural gas company Eni SpA -- purchased leases on 36 Gulf of Mexico tracts under the 2006 compromise.
Jeb Bachmann, an analyst with New Orleans energy consultant Howard Weil, said the four understand the shifting political and financial realities.
"It gives you an indication that some of these companies believe there is some light at the end of the tunnel," Bachmann said. "There is higher pricing and a belief that higher prices are going to ultimately drive some changes."
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FIRE WORKS GO OFF ON THE PROCEEDING POST
I like the picture on this post, but, but I gotta say the real fire works are happening on the previous post -- the sparks are flying!
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED FOR "FOSSIL" THEORY
Key the music:
Title :Don McLean - American Pie
A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.
But february made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.
So bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock ’n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you’re in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.
I started singin’,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,
Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.
We were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
We started singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.
And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
And they were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."
They were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."
The "fossil" theory ediface crumbling -- hey, "fossil" theorists need a long last song.
Because after its done -- the music has died -- and "fossil" theory with it.
Think about that.
THE EARLY GREEKS AND NUMBERS
As Galileo said: The language of Nature is mathematics.
Per Wikipedia,
PYTHAGORAS:
Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: Ὁ Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply Ὁ Πυθαγόρας; born between 580 and 572 BC, died between 500 and 490 BC) was an Ionian Greek mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy. Herodotus referred to him as "the most able philosopher among the Greeks". His name led him to be associated with Pythian Apollo; Aristippus explained his name by saying, "He spoke (agor-) the truth no less than did the Pythian (Pyth-)," and Iamblichus tells the story that the Pythia prophesied that his pregnant mother would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and of benefit to humankind.[1]
He is best known for the Pythagorean theorem, which bears his name. Known as "the father of numbers", Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. Because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratics, one can say little with confidence about his life and teachings. We do know that Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles. According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras once said that "number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and demons."
He was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,[2] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato. Unfortunately, very little is known about Pythagoras because none of his writings have survived. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors.
Per Wikipedia,
EUCLID:
Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria. Euclid's text Elements is the earliest known systematic discussion of geometry. It has been one of the most influential books in history, as much for its method as for its mathematical content. The method consists of assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms, and then proving many other propositions (theorems) from those axioms. Although many of Euclid's results had been stated by earlier Greek mathematicians, Euclid was the first to show how these propositions could be fit together into a comprehensive deductive and logical system.
The Elements begin with plane geometry, still taught in secondary school as the first axiomatic system and the first examples of formal proof. The Elements goes on to the solid geometry of three dimensions, and Euclidean geometry was subsequently extended to any finite number of dimensions. Much of the Elements states results of what is now called number theory, proved using geometrical methods.
For over two thousand years, the adjective "Euclidean" was unnecessary because no other sort of geometry had been conceived. Euclid's axioms seemed so intuitively obvious that any theorem proved from them was deemed true in an absolute sense. Today, however, many other self-consistent non-Euclidean geometries are known, the first ones having been discovered in the early 19th century. It also is no longer taken for granted that Euclidean geometry describes physical space. An implication of Einstein's theory of general relativity is that Euclidean geometry is a good approximation to the properties of physical space only if the gravitational field is not too strong.
Abiotic Theory answers the requirements of mathematics: And the language of Nature.
"Cool"
THE PETROLEUM "BLUES"
Key the music:
Glenn Frey, Title, "smugglers' Blues"
There's trouble on the streets tonight,
I can feel it in my bones.
I had a premonition,
That he should not go alone.
I knew the gun was loaded,
But I didn't think he'd kill.
Everything exploded,
And the blood began to spill.
So baby, here's your ticket,
Put the suitcase in your hand.
Here's a little money now,
Do it just the way we planned.
You be cool for twenty hours
And I'll pay you twenty grand.
I'm sorry it went down like this,
And someone had to lose,
It's the nature of the business,
It's the smuggler's blues.
Smuggler's Blues
The sailors and pilots,
The soldiers and the law,
The pay offs and the rip offs,
And the things nobody saw.
No matter if it's heroin, cocaine, or hash,
You've got to carry weapons
Cause you always carry cash.
There's lots of shady characters,
Lots of dirty deals.
Ev'ry name's an alias
In case somebody squeals.
It's the lure of easy money,
It's gotta very strong appeal.
Perhaps you'd understand it better
Standin' in my shoes,
It's the ultimate enticement,
It's the smuggler's blues,
Smuggler's blues.
See it in the headlines,
You hear it ev'ry day.
They say they're gonna stop it,
But it doesn't go away.
They move it through Miami, sell it in L.A.,
They hide it up in Telluride,
I mean it's here to stay.
It's propping up the governments in Columbia and Peru,
You ask any D.E.A. man,
He'll say There's nothin' we can do,
From the office of the President,
Right down to me and you, me and you.
It's a losing proposition,
But one you can't refuse.
It's the politics of contraband,
It's the smuggler's blues,
Smuggler's blues.
Crude oil, its gotta very strong appeal.
Per Wikipedia,
SOCRATES:
Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης c. 469 BC–399 BC[1]) was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, in reality he is an enigmatic figure known only through other peoples accounts. Historians consider Diogenes Laertius to be the only reliable source about the 'actual Socrates', although it is Plato's descriptions that have largely created today's impression of him. [2].
This Socrates is renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato's Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy which followed.
As one recent commentator has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers "an idol, a master figure, for philosophy. A Saint, a prophet of the 'Sun-Good', a teacher condemned for his teachings as an heretic." [3] yet the 'real' Socrates, like many of the other Ancient philosophers, remains at best enigmatic and at worst unknown.
Music & mathematics & philosophy: They go hand-in-hand.
Anaconda ... you should write letters to oil companies, consulting firms, and universities to let them know that fossil theory has died. They are definitely going to need to know.
BrianR: Any person who sees your steadfast refusal to answer direct questions and critiques about "fossil" theory, already knows the inherent weaknesses of "fossil" theory.
But as I've written before, the investment community takes Abiotic Theory seriously, as expressed in their investment in ultra-deepwater, deep-drilling.
One example: 40X750 million Dollars a ship, drilling rigs that reach TVD 40,000 in up to 12,000 feet of water.
(In 12,000 feet of water the rig can drill 28,000 feet below the sea-floor.)
Exceeding the 15,000 feet "oil window" that oil geologists maintain.
That's a 30 billion Dollar investment -- and it's just one example.
Their investments are counting on it.
That's no small indication of Abiotic Theory's worth.
Your comment not withstanding.
To Dr. Snow:
Your statement:
"The oil window refers to the pressure-temperature space at which cracking occurs. It says absolutely nothing about depth, except for a very generalized statement one author made quite some time ago."
Okay, I'll take the statement that 15,000 feet is a general approximation of the point in the stratigraphic column where oil "cracks" into gas accoring to "fossil" theory.
But the actual determining element is the heat and pressure.
But obviously, you still cling to the "oil window" concept, but reject 15,000 feet deep point as a hard and fast rule.
Further Dr. Snow states:
"In areas such as the deepwater GOM, the geothermal gradient is quite low. Also, you must remember that time is a factor in the cracking process as well."
Actually, as I understand it, the crust is thinner in continental magin areas, so it heats up faster with depth than in continental crust.
Corioca, the huge oil find off the Brazil coast has 500 degree F. oil.
This is way beyond the 275 degrees F. you mentioned in another comment as being the point where oil cracks into gas. So you got a problem.
Alan von Altendorf, another oil geologist, maintains Corioca will be mostly gas. What, Dr. Snow, is your opinion about the Corioca field?
Also, you mention time, "Also, you must remember that time is a factor in the cracking process as well." If this has to do with burial age and maturation, I gotta say, I don't buy it.
If it's hot enough to "crack" the oil, then "24 million years" is enough time to crack all the oil that is there.
I'm convinced pressure plays a lot larger role than oil geologists understand. And some types of hydrocarbons have more stability than is recognized.
Dr. Snow states: "You haven't addressed the fact that long HC-bonds would be rapidly unstable when removed from that pressure!"
On the contrary, "long HC-bonds can be stable. Look at heavy oil seeps again.
Heavy oil has "long HC-bonds" yet it exists at the surface for long periods of time without breaking down.
Rather, it's the volatiles that breakdown at the surface quickly, but are preserved with pressure, i.e., a "tight" trapping structure preserves hydrocarbons in the crustal environment.
Dr. Snow states: "Furthermore, when you look at P-T regimes in the mantle, it should be clear that you don't just have FeO and CaCO3 lying around - these are locked up in other minerals, so one would have to show those reaction taking place between something like olivine and garnet... Kenney's experiments are bordering on irrelevant."
This is a solid point. The best point raised so far.
Let's focus on your phrase: "so one would have to show those reaction taking place between something like olivine and garnet..."
There are lots of chemical reactions and mixing occurring in the mantle. How else do you account for all the myriad combinations of elements that make up the whole family of minerals?
You do make a good point that Kenney's experiment isn't a complete duplicate of the mantle. Rather, it stands for the proposition that the hydrogen-carbon alkane series can be created at ultra-high pressure and temperature.
But the experiment is not an absolute duplication of the mantle, you are right to point out.
That could be a subject of further experimentation.
But Kenney's experiment and results are more than "fossil" theory has on its resume. There are NO experiments that even come close to duplicating anything theorized by "fossil" theory.
Dr. Snow states: "You also haven't addressed the issue of transport to the near-surface? Keep in mind that there are very few rocks exposed at the surface that have traversed 90-150 km of crust... especially somewhere like the GOM!"
I have addressed the "transport" issue in another comment thread, Thursday, October 4, 2007 The Lies Of Colin Campbell, Comment #3, From Eternity to Here, 4/15/08.
Although, the comment deals with the issue of the hydrocarbon "surviving" without breaking down into methane.
Your question has to do with physical "pathways." That is another good point. But I think there are demonstrated instances of mantle material coming to the surface. The Travis volcanic mounds are one example: "The magmas in both Central and South Texas were ultramafic and alkaline, suggesting that partial melting occurred at depths of about 40 miles (60 kilometers). The magma rose rapidly to the surface, probably in an extensional stress regime controlled by pre-Tertiary Balcones-Luling faults."
There are other examples, too.
All vocanic, 'solfataric' emanations have their origin in the mantle and that's where oil originates, too.
Dr. Snow states in seperate comment another post: "If this is the case, why don't we see oil getting erupted to the surface everytime we have a volcanic eruption?"
The heat of magma combusts hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide, and also different eruptions have different properties and characteristics -- volcanic eruptions are not uniform.
Well, it seems to me that there ought to be a range of P-T values whereby oil is formed from methane, which is a major dissolved gas in volcanic magma, isn't it!? Is there a chart showing the P-T regions where you get each of the dominant hycrocarbon molecules? Also, the density and thickness of each of the stratigraphic rock layers on top of the trapped organic or inorganic methane gas, along with the general thermal gradient would be somewhat instructive for resolving these issues. I'm not entirely convinced that time is important in the formation of oil though, hydrocarbons aren't symmetrical 3D crystal structures, they're chain-molecules that perhaps form via being stress/strained under intense seepage or sheering pressures, I'll bet.
The so-called biogenic "oil window" is laughable.
To Quantum_Flux:
You stated: "Well, it seems to me that there ought to be a range of P-T values whereby oil is formed from methane..."
Trust me, oil geologists haven't figured out a "range of P-T values" where oil is cracked into gas. Or, "whereby oil is formed from methane..."
If they did, Dr. Snow would have mentioned it.
And nowhere in the literature is there mention of a P-T cracking table for the "oil window."
Dr. Snow was engaged in what is called a "scramble" to cover the failure of the "oil window" concept.
And let's be clear: It's the general concept of an "oil window" that has failed, not just the 15,000 foot specific number depth.
Dr. Snow states: "In areas such as the deepwater GOM, the geothermal gradient is quite low."
This is explicitly contradicted by Tulane University Prof. of Petrology Stephen A. Nelson's paper, Structure of the Earth and the Origin of Magmas, where he says:
"The normal geothermal gradient is somewhat higher beneath the oceans than beneath the continents..."
That means it gets hotter quicker under the ocean sea-floor.
Cameron Snow Ph.D., "wet behind the ears," oil geologist has been "blown out of the water."
These guys don't think, they only "parrot" what they have been told at geology "school."
Cool then!
"The normal geothermal gradient is somewhat higher beneath the oceans than beneath the continents, at least at shallow levels"
Geothermal Gradient = d(Temp)/d(Depth) ...it does, however, decrease with depth below the oceanic crust in the diagram. At the surface, however, you could probably run a highly efficient heat engine between the cold and hot reservoirs or something. That is because you have cool ocean waters sitting on top of the intense heat being generated by the subduction zone.
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