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Sustainable Oil?
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Greenalnd resources / reserves
Jul 11, 2004, 21:04
There is some confusion on the issue of how much oil might be underneath Greenland. The polar regions are the only unsurveyed areas left. However the sort of geology required to form oil fields is fairly rare, and much of the polar regions (like much of the rest of the planet) is ruled out by hvaing "the wrong rocks".

Greenland, though, does appear to be a decent prospect, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates as much as 49 billion barrels could be sitting beneath the Northeast Greenland shelf. However, this would equate to 10 times (!) the quantity found in the mid-Norwegian fields (an area of the same physical size as the Northeast shelf). There appears to be no rationale for this inflated estimate, and certainly the oil companies appear to be having none of it.

Phillips Petroleum and Norway's Statoil have both done some exploratory drilling in Western Greenland, and both ceased doing so in 2002 having drilled nothing but dry holes. Greenland has since dropped it's petroproduction tax to 30% (extremely low... most nations set it around 50%) to attract companies into carrying out further exploration.

To the best of my knowledge, none have yet done so. Though of course they eventually will - have no doubts about that - but they seem to consider it something of a long shot.

Besides which, even assuming the grossly inflated estimate of 49Gb is correct... though certainly large, it's not going to satisfy the global economy for long. The US alone consumed 7.3 billion last year - and it _only_ consumes 25% of the global total. So at present consumption rates, the long-shot that is the 49Gb under Greenland would sate our thirst for a shade over 20 months.

And that's not even getting on to the subject of the extreme engineering difficulties (and high energy expenditure) involved in polar drilling. . . . . .

The conclusion? Society has to find a way to consume less oil. Not find more.
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Re: Sustainable Oil? (Ether)		 Replies:
A note about 'peak' oil production (grufty jim)
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