[cudabachi]

Petrobras Signs Deal To Explore Shale Oil In Morocco--Sorry, no linky disponible.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--State-controlled oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, has signed a deal to study the extraction of oil from shale rock in Morocco, local newspaper O Globo reported Thursday.

Petrobras and Morocco's Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines will sign the cooperation agreement in June when Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visits Morocco, the newspaper said.

Petrobras already produces about 4,000 barrels a day of oil from shale in the Brazilian southern state of Parana, and has signed a similar agreement with Jordan, O Globo said.

"They have the (shale) rock and we have the technology. It remains to be seen whether it's viable to use it," Bassim Djahjah, Petrobra's manager of new projects in Europe, is quoted as saying.

According to O Globo, Morocco has reserves of 90 billion tons of shale.

[Tanada]

Just another way of throwing good money after bad. Oh well, maybe some Morrocans will get good paying jobs out of the deal whuile it lasts.

[jc4patents]

what does anyone know about the reported huge deepwater
find reported by Petrobras ? e.g., see initial report at

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_ ... brazil_oil

some estimates say it could be world's 3rd largest reserve

Petrobras also says it could take 5 years to develop the field

[jimmyz]

Brazil ANP head criticized over oil field estimate

Web Page Name

[Toyota1]

And the biggest field is in America or Russia?

[rockdoc123]

There is already a thread here about this.
As an update Petrobras has indicated that although a discovery well was drilled in late 2007 they are not sure of the ultimate size. They spudded a subsequent appraisal well in late March and are still drilling, they have not made it to the reservoir section.
As a consequence the announcement by the Brazil regulatory agency is speculative based on 1. the fact they had a certain amount of reservoir pay in the discovery well that produced hydrocarbon and 2. they have seismic maps that show the areal extent. Without subsequent appraisal drilling they have no idea how extensive the actual reservoir section is. It may not be present over the entire structure or it might thin out in certain areas. Petrobras has also not indicated whether they found an oil/water contact which also is needed to properly assess the potential resources.
An example of a government beaurocrat speaking out of turn.

[seahorse2]

Hi Rockdoc,

Let's assume they find lots of oil down there. Can you give us some idea on the following:

(1) In an optimistic world, when would they begin producing? I always hear there is about a six year time lag between discovery and production;

(2) From what I've read, the reservoir is about 4k feet deep? I've read under 2k feet of water, 1k feet of salt and another 1k feet of rock. How difficult is this reported reservoir to drill and produce in?

[hironegro]

So is this going to turn out to be another falkland islands/faroe island/east timor situation of hype over reality?

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '(')1) In an optimistic world, when would they begin producing? I always hear there is about a six year time lag between discovery and production;

(2) From what I've read, the reservoir is about 4k feet deep? I've read under 2k feet of water, 1k feet of salt and another 1k feet of rock. How difficult is this reported reservoir to drill and produce in?

[Roy]

I saw two articles about this find today.

One on Yahoo news said this was the big one. Third largest in the world. Yahoo article

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')AO PAULO, Brazil - A deep-water exploration area could contain as much as 33 billion barrels of oil, an amount that would nearly triple Brazil's reserves and make the offshore bloc the world's third-largest known oil reserve, a top energy official said Monday.

[copious.abundance]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jc4patents', 'w')hat does anyone know about the reported huge deepwater
find reported by Petrobras ? e.g., see initial report at

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_ ... brazil_oil

some estimates say it could be world's 3rd largest reserve

Petrobras also says it could take 5 years to develop the field

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', 'I') saw two articles about this find today.

One on Yahoo news said this was the big one. Third largest in the world.

A few minutes later, I surf over to PO.com, and on the front page is posted an article linked from xinhua.net saying that Petrobas denies the above claim, and they had not finished drilling through the salt layer.

What the f?


I know xinhua.net may not be considered to be the most reputable source, but this is strange.

I'll have a side of obfuscation with that!

[sicophiliac]

Maybe Petrobras doesn't want to count their chickens before they hatch so to speak. They are a publicly traded company and perhaps it would open them up to legal issues of they were trumping a giant oil/gas find when it eventually might not materialize. None the less it should work out to be a sizable discovery even if its only a fraction of the 33 billion barrels possible. Too bad well probably be on the down slope past peak oil once the oil comes online. Even still it would only produce at best what? a few million barrels a day assuming they get plenty of top dollar deep water rigs in there. On a positive note it does appear that the potential for deep water oil discoveries is looking pretty good so far.

[jc4patents]

to see an interesting article on this subject in the latest Economist magazine, see

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/dis ... 2&fsrc=nwl

[Ainan]

There is an article about it in todays Guardian newspaper in the UK. Entitled "Hopes that surprise Brazilian oil discovery could confound the doom-mongers" with an "Explainer: Peak Oil Theory" which does not explain peak oil...

Endless optimism characterises the end of the industrial revolution.

[DantesPeak]

Nevermind:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')razil Field Smaller Than Claimed, Credit Suisse Says (Update3)

By Joe Carroll

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's Carioca prospect may have 98 percent less crude than a figure cited by the country's oil agency, Credit Suisse Group said, challenging claims that the field is the biggest-ever discovery outside the Middle East.

Haroldo Lima, director of Brazil's National Oil Agency, sent shares of Petroleo Brasileiro SA and other Carioca stakeholders higher when he said April 14 that the offshore field may hold 33 billion barrels of oil. That figure is ``way off the mark,'' Mark Flannery, a Credit Suisse analyst in New York, said today on a conference call with clients.

An estimate of about 600 million barrels ``sounds reasonable,'' Flannery said, adding that the firm isn't yet giving an official assessment of its own. The estimate cited by Lima was probably intended for the entire subsea geological formation known as Sugar Loaf, which encompasses multiple fields, Credit Suisse said.

``A lot of exploration and delineation is going to need to take place,'' Emerson Leite, a Credit Suisse analyst who's been following Petroleo Brasileiro for a decade, said on the conference call. ``We are very early in the process here.''

Um, you don't read too closely . .
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DantesPeak', 'N')evermind:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')razil Field Smaller Than Claimed, Credit Suisse Says (Update3)

By Joe Carroll

[...]
An estimate of about 600 million barrels ``sounds reasonable,'' Flannery said, adding that the firm isn't yet giving an official assessment of its own. The estimate cited by Lima was probably intended for the entire subsea geological formation known as Sugar Loaf, which encompasses multiple fields, Credit Suisse said.
[...]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'U')m, you don't read too closely . .
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DantesPeak', 'N')evermind:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')razil Field Smaller Than Claimed, Credit Suisse Says (Update3)

By Joe Carroll

[...]
An estimate of about 600 million barrels ``sounds reasonable,'' Flannery said, adding that the firm isn't yet giving an official assessment of its own. The estimate cited by Lima was probably intended for the entire subsea geological formation known as Sugar Loaf, which encompasses multiple fields, Credit Suisse said.
[...]

[DantesPeak]

So your whole case is based upon some possible interpretation of one comment?

[seahorse]

Oilfinder,

When do you believe oil production will start in this new area?

What do you believe the recoverable reserves will be in this area?

What do you believe will be the maximum rate of production and when?

Without this find, when do you believe the world will hit peak oil?

With this find, when do you believe the world will hit "peak oil"?