31 March 2008

A Lot More Oil Where That Came From

Huge quantities of oil lie in sediments that have been covered by volcanic activity over hundreds of millions of years of geologic upheaval. New methods of "seeing through" lava flows on the ocean floor--to the rich sediments below--are bringing previously hidden regions of the planet's undersea surface into the oil exploration game.
The scientists, led by Professor Robert White, FRS at the University of Cambridge (UK), also developed a new method of seeing through the thick lava flows beneath the seafloor to the sediments and structures beneath. The technique is now being employed to further oil exploration of the area which was previously restricted by the inability to image through the lava flows.

The research was funded by a university-industry research group, which included Cambridge and Liverpool Universities, Schlumberger Cambridge Research Ltd and Badley Geoscience Ltd, with major funding input from WesternGeco, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Department of Trade and Industry, and eight oil companies.

...The researchers’ findings [...] have implications for oil exploration in the region. Large volumes of oil have already been discovered (and are being extracted) in the sediments under the seabed between the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands. If these same sediments extend westward towards the Faroe Islands, as geological models suggest they do, there may be more oil to be found.

Conventional exploration techniques have not been able to penetrate the thick layers of lava flows that poured over them at the time the North Atlantic broke open. Techniques developed in conjunction with the mapping research enable the penetration of the molten rock layer to the sediments and structures that lie beneath them.___GCC
Peak Oil theory is based upon ignorance: Ignorance of the true extent of oil formations under most of the surface of the Earth. Only North America has been fairly well explored for oil, and even there, large new fields are still being found. The age of oil is far from over.

Which is a good thing, since neither renewable energy nor nuclear energy are ready to provide the fuels and power currently being provided by oil and gas. Oil will be absolutely necessary during the next few decades, to bridge into the new era of renewables, safe fission, and hopefully controlled fusion.

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2 Comments:

Blogger JackofBlades said...

Your ignorance is based on that you do not know what Peak Oil means. It's not about running out of Oil, Al Fin. It is about supplu not being able to keep up with our demand. Demand has surpassed supply. The Oil age is over!
The Bakken is a nothing field. 3.6 billion barrels...haha... We'll have that sucked dry in no time.
Wake Up!!! You're in denial.

Wednesday, 09 July, 2008  
Blogger al fin said...

Lack of Blades: It might be better for you to go to sleep, Lack, and wake up in 20 years to find that there is more oil then than there is now.

It won't be worth much, of course, because better substitutes will be working their way into the energy mix.

Sleeping through the transition might save you from decades of making yourself ever more the fool.

Sunday, 24 January, 2010  

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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell

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