Joined: Sep 17, 2006 Posts: 640 Location: No man's land
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:34 pm Post subject: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
Quote:
Massive reserves at stake in Arctic oil claim
A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said Thursday that new geological data suggests a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels...
Big Oil has gone from being an anti-global warming propaganda machine to an anxious developer of the vast petroleum resources under the Arctic Ocean.
In both cases, out of avarice, Big Oil refuses do its homework. If the Arctic ice cap melts off, Big Oil can kiss its ass goodbye...this is a civilization ending event. _________________ "It is no measure of health to be deemed sane in an insane society" J. Krishnamurti
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:34 pm Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
Russia already claimed all the arctic oil. As long as US has enough soldiers to secure oil from terrorists for free, there will be no local production. _________________ People first, then things, then dollars.
There will be enslavement, cannibalism, & zombie invasions.
Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 277 Location: Second Vermont Republic
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:32 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
[quote="billg"]
Quote:
Massive reserves at stake in Arctic oil claim
In both cases, out of avarice, Big Oil refuses do its homework. If the Arctic ice cap melts off, Big Oil can kiss its ass goodbye...this is a civilization ending event.
Think about all that new beach front property in Siberia.
Seriously, why would it end civilization? In the long run, with so much land concentrated at the poles, warming Canada, Siberia, Greenland, and Antarctica would increase the amount of habitable land on the planet.
Massive disruptions for the lower latitudes, of course.
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
The arctic ocean will continue to freeze over winter for a very long time. Exploiting oil reserves in the arctic ocean would either need a submarine platform or one that can be moved off of the site every winter. Either solution would be increadibly expensive and vaulnrable to a sudden dip in summer temperatures leaving no open water.
Gods a nuclear powered oil platform that has to be built to work at 2-300 meters below the surface. I think a moon shot with the new NASA Orion vehicle would be cheaper.
Joined: Apr 12, 2007 Posts: 1172 Location: Central NC
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:13 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
[quote="KingM"]
billg wrote:
Quote:
Massive reserves at stake in Arctic oil claim
In both cases, out of avarice, Big Oil refuses do its homework. If the Arctic ice cap melts off, Big Oil can kiss its ass goodbye...this is a civilization ending event.
Think about all that new beach front property in Siberia.
Seriously, why would it end civilization? In the long run, with so much land concentrated at the poles, warming Canada, Siberia, Greenland, and Antarctica would increase the amount of habitable land on the planet.
Massive disruptions for the lower latitudes, of course.
There is no land at the North Pole. The land surrounding the Arctic ocean is already "ice free" in the summer.
How is habitable defined? People live in the northern tundra regions now. They don't grow much food (crops or animals) and there won't be much food grown in that region in the future either. Primarily because there is no soil and the water is fairly acidic, but also because there is a distinct lack of sunlight for much of the year and winters will continue to be brutal which won't allow for trees and perennial plants to winter over.
Joined: Mar 05, 2006 Posts: 420 Location: East edge of the Milky Way
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:24 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
'Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?' ~ Of course, there will be alot of heeing and hawing about the eniromental impact, but in the end(and in face of others wanting the same resource), the 'junkie' needs its fix...same thing going on in parts of South America, displacing and killing indigenous people...who cares about them when we need our 'black heroin'.
Alex
Joined: Oct 04, 2007 Posts: 213 Location: North-East USA
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:41 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
the most that arctic ice melting is going to do is open the northwest passage and make life for bangladeshis even sh*ttier
also with all this euphoria over arctic oil i dont see many people considering an obvious question...
"is there oil in the arctic at all?"
my theory is that there is not, not any further than 100m from land anyway, and like others have pointed out whatever small amount they will find will be excruciatingly hard to recover
this is so much more complicated than pumping oil out of sand i think most people just fail to imagine the costs involved
will it be profitable with $100/bbl oil? possibly, but if we're going to pump polar regions there will be no illusions left that the cheap (and even not so cheap) oil is gone
this is scraping the bottom of the peanut butter jar with a spoon in a desperate attempt at a last serving before the jar is empty, i see no optimism in this at all (to be fair i dont see optimism in almost anything lately ) _________________ Tyler_JC:
"I love how every conversation on this website, given enough time, will turn into a discussion of cannibalism."
““Life is on the wire…the rest is just waiting””
Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 3403 Location: 3 miles NW of Champoeg, Republic of Cascadia
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:10 am Post subject: Re: Will Big Oil prevail in the Arctic?
Jean Laherrere recently contributed an article to the Oil Drum on Arctic Oil and Gas Ultimates which will answer any and all questions. Concerning the Russians' claim to the North Pole:
Quote:
The recent attempt by the Russians to claim the North Pole is attributed to oil and gas potential. The only seismic line on the Arctic Sea I know of is from a study by the IODP:
Quote:
The scientific inspiration that subsequently led to ACEX surfaced aboard F/S Polarstern in 1991 when two reflection seismic profiles (AWI-91090 and AWI-91091) were acquired by Wilfried Jokat and Yngve Kristoffersen across the Lomonosov Ridge between 87° and 88°N. These profiles show a neatly draped sediment sequence being over 400 m thick, at a modest water depth of ca 1200 m, which were considered to represent an undisturbed and continuous record of lower Eocene to Recent sediments.
A thickness of 400 m is not enough for a real oil and gas potential. The Russian's move seems to be more connected to controlling sea navigation.
Arctic oil and gas will not change much the coming world peak oil and gas!
This business of the sediment being too thin is explained in a comment from Euan Mearns:
Quote:
The point you make about 400m sediment on the Lomonosov Ridge is well made - for our non-geological readers we need well in excess of 3000m of sediments to have source rocks (if they exist) buried to sufficient depth to achieve the temperature required to produce oil or gas. So this is propaganda for consumption by the financial press.
All geographic regions in the Arctic are covered, but I thought I'd quote the comments on the North Pole to show that these claims of hundreds of billions of barrels waiting under the ice/tundra/permafrost are largely bunk, according to Jean. _________________ Cogito, ergo non satis bibivi
Could you slide your shorts down please?
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