Science Friday: Oil & Water

by DarkSyde Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 03:53:44 AM PDT

Last Tuesday on Hardball, former GOP campaign manager and current neocon apologist Terry Jeffrey mentioned several times that [paraphrasing] "There's more oil off the coast of the US than in all the Middle East." Mr. Jeffrey then went on to take a shot at 'flaky environmentalists' for not developing these allegedly vast domestic energy treasures. Perhaps Mr. Jeffrey is simply misinformed or maybe he was too hemmed in by the constraints of commercial television to elaborate. But odds are he was also shilling for the DOER:

The Oil Drum--On June 29th, the House of Representatives passed the Deep Ocean Energy Resources (DOER) act. This bill may be taken up by the Senate soon. The legislation is now in the news and the mudslinging has begun. Conservative organizations and media like the Washington Times are pushing the main agenda, which is to open up areas of the US Outer Continental Shelf to oil & natural gas E&P.

The nearer the oil is to the surface, and the easier it flows through the formation containing it, the cheaper it is to extract. The larger and thicker the formation that contains the oil, the longer that reservoir will produce and thus the more profitable it will be. The largest such reservoir in the world is Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. It is an enormous field, the crown jewel in earth's energy treasure chest. Ghawar has produced several million barrels of oil a day for fifty years. It will continue to produce significantly for many years to come. But there are signs Ghawar may be at or near peak production.