[sammyg2]

Just found this:

Large Oil Discovery In Gulf Of Mexico By BP.

Pushing the limits of current drilling technology to a depth over 35,000 feet, British Petroleum or BP has made a major oil discovery. The story was reported by the Washington Post on September 2, 2009 and exploration of the field is kicking off in earnest this year.

Quote: “BP said Wednesday that it made a “giant” oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, and analysts said that the find deep below the sea floor raised hopes that further exploration in the region could help sustain U.S. offshore oil production.

The discovery, known as Tiber, was made 250 miles southeast of Houston and was “in the same league” as other big fields BP has discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said. The company would not make any estimates on the amount of oil its latest find could yield, but the biggest platform in those other fields, Thunder Horse, is producing as much as 300,000 barrels a day.

The exploration well used to find the Tiber field was the deepest vertical well ever drilled, according to Guy Cantwell, communications director at Transocean, the offshore drilling company that owns the rig. Working conditions were challenging, he said. The rig, the Deepwater Horizon, dangled about a million pounds of well casing while floating in 4,132 feet of water, and then drilled another 30,923 feet below the sea floor. Temperatures at the sea floor were about 35 degrees, while the temperature of fluids in the well miles below was 250 degrees.

Bob MacKnight, a senior consultant with the Washington consulting firm PFC Energy, cautioned that while the big new discoveries were welcome news, they might not boost overall U.S. oil output because other Gulf of Mexico fields are expected to decline. “We really need this,” he said. “After 2012, given current developments, we will see production start to decline. Without continued discoveries . . . that decline could be steep.” Washington Post

With oil prices now flirting with $100 a barrel this type of ultra deep water exploration again may be profitable. The fact that major finds such as this recent one by BP continue to be discovered is good news for American drivers. The Gulf of Mexico continues to supply over a quarter of the domestic oil and gas used in the United States. More major projects are underway by Shell and Exxon-Mobil at the very edge of U.S. territorial waters as the black gold rush continues on into the new decade.

While not the deepest well, the Perdido Spar, operated in part by Shell Oil, is the deepest water rig thus far.