Exxon Mobil Corp. has made one of the largest oil and gas finds in the Gulf of Mexico in a decade, the company announced today.
The oil major said it made two oil discoveries and a natural gas discovery in its Keathley Canyon blocks, including an oil discovery in the company’s first exploration well since last year’s moratorium on deep-water drilling.
Exxon expects the combined finds to yield more than 700 million barrels of oil equivalent. More than 85 percent would be oil, the company said.
Drilling early in 2010 turned up oil and natural gas at the well 250 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Hadrian North field. Work was suspended during the federal drilling ban, but the well is in about 7,000 feet of water and will be drilled deeper, the company said.
“This is one of the largest discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico in the last decade,” said Steve Greenlee, president of Exxon Mobil Exploration Company. “We plan to work with our joint venture partners and other lessees in the area to determine the best way to safely develop these resources as rapidly as possible.”
Exxon operates the well in a joint venture with Eni and Petrobras, each of which hold a 25 percent interest.
The well had been blocked by the federal moratorium on deep-water drilling imposed after BP’s Macondo blowout last year. The ban was lifted in October. Exxon won a permit to proceed with the project in March.
(Image: Exxon Mobil)
Not to worry ole’ earth worshipers. Osama will stop the drilling and gas prices will continue to rise.
Funny how Petrobras seems to have a hand in every deep water well that has been allowed to continue drilling since the moratorium. Probably being George Soros owns 51% of Petrobras Obama wouldn’t want to upset his biggest contributor!
Obama will have to move fast to shut this down. And the president/CEO of GM will need to suggest a $2/ gallon tax increase (instead of his earlier $1/gallon recommendation) if all this oil comes into production.
Guess that’s how they will pay for that boondoggle they’re building in The Woodlands; the only people who seem to like it must be people who live up there – the rank-and-file who live all over town sure don’t.
This reminds me of Chappie..and Exxon engineer in that same area in 1975.
With all of Barack’s new regulations fixin to clamp down on the offshore oil industry, I doubt that Exxon Mobil gets a drop of oil out of that hole in the next decade. Unless of course there’s a regime change in November 2012.
WHO, the your Petrobras conspiracy theory is embarassing. It is convoluted and nonsensical. Besides being nutty, it is a real loser issue. Politically that is. There are plenty of other things to attack Obama on.
Most big drilling projects involve partners, many of which are foreign companies including: Eni (Italy), Total (France), Shell (UK/Netherlands), Statoil (Norway), etc., etc.
Actually WHO, Petrobras is likely a part of all of these permits due to their industry leading offshore expertise and experience. They are true pioneers of deepwater exploration. And George Soros is a shareholder of Petrobras, but there is no way he owns even close to 51%. The government of Brazil owns over 50% of Petrobras.
Nice try though.
Dril, drill, drill!!!
Wow – everyone sure has short memories – last year in the middle of the massive oil spill everyone was screaming for the government to do more – now it’s a distant memory and there should be no regulation. I’m tired of spending more on gas too – but we need some regulations in place to avoid the disaster we had last year.
We are drilling more oil from the Gulf today under Obama than we were under Bush.
This reminds me of hurricanes. Ever notice how, during a hurricane, everyone is a meteorologist? Suddenly, everyone becomes THE authority! In this case, an offshore drilling engineer (among about 5,000 other experts that make it happen).
Happy now, all you “drill baby drill” wackos????? Sheesh!!!
Get ready for Gulf Oil Spill II. I guess CNN needs a ratings boost.
But Comrades Didn’t you Hear Burns-Slant Drilling already Emptied i out with there Base In Guatamala.
“The government of Brazil owns over 50% of Petrobras.”
——–
Because O gave them 2 billion bucks. And where do you think they learned all that “expertise” from?
Texas offshore drillers.
Thanks for playing.
We all know that the reason oil is $4/gallon is NOT due to supply. It’s plain greed by the oil companies. Ever wonder why oil companies have been raking in record profits year after year when everyone else is suffering?
Drill Baby Drill – love those XOM dividends!!!
Obama will see that this oil find is stopped – can’t have anything that might lower pump prices, you know.
Get ‘er done!
Hey Mike, we are happy now.
Oil’s up – Solar is down – it’s a good day, Tater, for XOM!
Nathan, you watch too much MSNBC. Find a dictionary (never mind, you’ve likely never seen one) – Google OPEC. Then research market speculation. AND check the profit PERCENTAGE the greedy oil companies make. It’s only volume that allows their “obscene” profits. No other industry stays in business on margins that slim.
This is great, but doesn’t the US use 19 million barrels of oil per day?
If my math is right, 700/19 is less than 40 days of US oil consumption.
Worldwide demand is about 85 million barrels a day, so the entire field will satisfy about 1 week of worldwide demand.
And this is the largest GOM find in a decade?
LH, Try inserting a few facts into your posts.
Obama have Petrobus $0.00. They were given a LINE OF CREDIT by the Impost Export Bank of the US. The board of directors of this “bank” was appointed by George W. Bush. The conditions of this line of credit are that it can only be spent on US goods and services. It has yet gone untapped.
You right wing nutts really need to get your facts straight. This is why Palin et al get such high marks from you. Because they spew lies and you just accept them.
LH-
Nice try, Petrobras has always been Brazil’s state owned oil company. More recently they have become a semi-public company with shares offered on stock exchanges. Brazil’s government has always owned the majority stake.
“And where do you think they learned all that “expertise” from? Texas offshore drillers.”
Nice opinion, but not really based on fact. You must not know much about the offshore industry, there are many other countries in the world that exploit offshore hydrocarbons- in even more extreme condictions than they do here in Texas…
When the largest publicly traded oil company in the world states in its 2011 annual summary that, for the past 10 years, it has not been able to replace what it has produced despite spending tens of billions of dollars on exploration, that tells the entire tale.
Here’s a summary analysis of the difficulties facing ExxonMobil and how oil production growth is no longer organic, it’s through acquisitions:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/02/if-exxon-cant-find-oil-who-can.html
You conservatives are rambling idiots.
If your morning poop isn’t regular, you think it must some commie, liberal, welfare-loving obama plot.
If you want to blame anyone for delaying the finishing of this well by a year, please see BP. It reminds me of a White Stripes song called Effect and Cause. It’s like blaming someone dying on the hearse.
Looks like the anti-Obama posting brgiade have recieved their marching orders and are cluttering up the comments section with their non-sequitur nonsense.
All these smart people on this comment board and not a word about the smart guys and the capital required to drill this well. At least the guys at XOM are contributing to the economy.