[ab0di]

When will apush to open up Antarctica to oil and gas exploration begin? A new find in Chile is close to Antarctica.

This from the EIA fact sheet on Antarctica.

The call for an environmental protocol to the Antarctic Treaty came after scientists discovered large deposits of natural resources such as coal, natural gas and offshore oil reserves in the early 1980s. Antarctica is considered to be part of the theoretical super-continent known as Gondwanaland, which separated near the end of the Paleozoic era and consisted of South America, Africa and Australia. And, because it once was completely covered in vegetation, many scientists believe it may hold one of the last supergiant oil fields yet to be discovered. The continental shelf of Antarctica is considered to hold the region's greatest potential for oil exploration projects, and although estimates vary as to the abundance of oil in Antarctica, the Weddell and Ross Sea areas alone are expected to possess 50 billion barrels of oil - an amount roughly equivalent to that of Alaska's estimated reserves. However, Antarctica's extreme conditions make oil field accessibility in many areas economically problematic.

Nevertheless, following the energy crisis of the 1970s, several oil companies looked to Antarctica as a possible solution to future world oil shortages by announcing plans to exploit the continent's resources. The necessary conditions for economically-sound oil production projects were beginning to ripen along with high oil prices and demand, and improved drilling technology. The prospect that Antarctica's fragile wildnerness could be tainted as a result of oil exploration and drilling activities resulted in the mobilization of several conservation groups who were intent on preserving the continent's status as the most pristine in the world.

[nth]

This can never be a dependable source.
Any effort to drill for oil will face environmentalists protesting and attacking oil facilities.
Not only that but the extreme environment will only enable oil production for part of the year.

If offshore, then oil platforms must be constantly unanchoring and moving away from ice bergs every year at least once if not more.

I do agree there are oil there and sooner or later we will be using it.

[Spideykid]

Environmentalists will become extinct when the price for gas goes through the roof, we have some here in Southern Oregon who use fire wood to heat their homes because it's natural and renewable, LOL they just don't understand the scope of the problem, how long would the trees last if everybody whacked them down for fire wood.

[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Spideykid', 'h')ow long would the trees last if everybody whacked them down for fire wood.

[JoeCoal]

Setting up Kingdoms... Hmm. Anyone an expert on the global / legal status of Antarctica?

What’s to stop a country with a large army from "claiming" it as the resource wars heat up?

[ubercynicmeister]

If I can just neatly side-step Essex Forest, and hence all the puns about forest & trees, trying to drill for Oil in Antacrtica is somewhat more problematic than Oil in Alaska, simply because Alaska's Oil field(s) are (more or less) attached to a huge land-mass known as North America. This means that one can set up a land-based pipleine to carry the goop away, and if it requires heating to make the stuff flow, so be it. In Antarctica, you have a land-mass surrounded by an awful lot of water so you'd have to try and transport the Oil through an Antarctic Winter.

If you use ships, they'd have to be able to endure the roughest seas on the planet. To make matters worse, for something like 2/3rd's of the time in Winter (ie: at least two months out of 12) you'd not be able to get the ships anywhere near the loading terminal, if this were built on the Antarctic Mainland.

If you use pipelines to get the Oil out, they'd have to be extremely well designed, so as to avoid getting busted by the first hurricane of the Winter. We've all seen how the super-well-designed Thunder Horse Platform withstood the side-swipe from Katrina & Rita - and that style of storm happens every few weeks in the Antractic Winter, but doesn't last a few hours, it lasts for weeks. Given the extreme cold and extreme winds, I cannot imagine how the heck they'd design such a beast. The very low temps means that steel tends to become very brittle. Thus you'd have to make your Oil Pipline from something else. Most other metals (I assume you're not going to try and make it from plastic) either cost too much, or don't have the physical properties required. Carbon Nano-tubes, perhaps?

And that's just the pipeline.

[TheTurtle]

Being a former math teacher, I feel compelled to phrase this as a simple problem:

Let's assume that the world consumes 80,000,000 barrels of oil per day.

Given 50 billion barrels of oil in the Weddell and Ross Sea areas and assuming that all of it can easily be obtained, how many days will the world's thirst for oil be satisfied?

Bonus question: At the end of that time, then what?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dreamtwister', 'P')eople will just set up their own little kingdoms and execute anyone who violates them.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nth', 'A')ny effort to drill for oil will face environmentalists protesting and attacking oil facilities.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JoeCoal', 'W')hat’s to stop a country with a large army from "claiming" it as the recourse wars heat up?

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', ' ') Really, it worked quite well for a long time.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Spideykid', 'L')OL they just don't understand the scope of the problem, how long would the trees last if everybody whacked them down for fire wood.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ab0di', 'T')he continental shelf of Antarctica is considered to hold the region's greatest potential for oil exploration projects, and although estimates vary as to the abundance of oil in Antarctica, the Weddell and Ross Sea areas alone are expected to possess 50 billion barrels of oil - an amount roughly equivalent to that of Alaska's estimated reserves.[/b] However, Antarctica's extreme conditions make oil field accessibility in many areas economically problematic.

[backstop]

Just in case any oil-major's chief of exploration is reading this thread in hopes of new insight, I feel I should mention the size of some of the icebergs floating off Antarctica as the ice shelves break up.

I seem to recall there was one the size of Texas not so long ago.

And Thunderhorse ? It would just be a minor dirty scratch on the edge of the berg that crushed it.

regards,

Backstop

[JoeCoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rogerhb', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JoeCoal', 'W')hat’s to stop a country with a large army from "claiming" it as the recourse wars heat up?

[eric_b]

In addition to the political and economic hurdles to drilling in Antarctica,
there's also the fact it's the most extreme and harsh environment on
Earth.

I was going to post some images showing how dramatically the sea
ice varies throughout the year. During its minimum (now) the waters
around the continent are nearly ice free. During the Winter months
the ice builds and extend hundreds to thousands of miles from the coast.
I imagine this would make coastal drilling very difficult. Antarctica is
not accessable by boat for half the year.

On the continent itself the ice cap reaches depths of kilometers, and the
ice itself flows at varying rates according to depth (ice stream). I
imagine this would make drilling very difficult, as one would have to
get through all this moving ice just to reach the crust.

It was discussed in this topic:
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic5240.html

A post of mine from above thread:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Well, no one is saying it's impossible to drill for oil in Antarctica -- just very very difficult and costly. Like I said earlier, it would likely take a Ghawar league field to justify the effort.

First, the ice sheet is not static. It's quite fluid. The ice tends to drain/flow towards the sea, but the flow rate is not uniform. It tends to flow downhill (like water) and converge into ice streams, which can flow hundreds of feet per year.

The flow also various with depth. It's safe to assume all the ice is moving inches to feet per year. I imagine this would wreak havok with any drilling attempts, especially through hundreds to thousands of meters of ice.

Antarctica is surrounded by sea ice for over half the year. The continent just aint accessable by boat for 6-8 months at a time. When the ice is clear, there's the extremely harsh and windy environment around Antarctica. From about 45 - 60 degrees south there's no land to block or slow down the prevailing westerlies, which scream around the continent, especially during Winter. The wind and ice would make it nearly impossible to drill off the continental shelf.

Anyone drilling for oil on/in the continent would either have to work over half the year largely isolated (slowly watching the oil slush accumulate) or work for just the few months out of the year when the oil could be shipped off the continent.

Add in the political situation and I doubt we're going to be seeing any oil from Antarctica.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')ust in case any oil-major's chief of exploration is reading this thread in hopes of new insight, I feel I should mention the size of some of the icebergs floating off Antarctica as the ice shelves break up

[backstop]

Mathematical note:

A concrete caisson able to withstand impact by 1,000,000 tonnes of ice -

is designed to withstand an iceberg just 20ms x 224ms x 224ms,

or a 100m cube.

[mekrob]

Hmm...not that great. I imagine a great majority are above the size, or at least to the size that would greatly damage the operations and require repairing of the defense.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nth', 'A')ny effort to drill for oil will face environmentalists protesting and attacking oil facilities.