Over 3,200 Gulf oil wells abandoned and possibly leaking

Approaching a year after the BP disaster

AP IMPACT: 3,200 Gulf wells unplugged, unprotected - Yahoo! News

the left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing over at BOEMRE

One thing not discussed is potential long-term viability of the oil production in general. That is, how quickly the wells deplete and the EROEI

Many of our US politicians (in a certain party) say we just need to drill more. :madgrin:

We certainly do need to drill baby drill.

Damn the environment, full speed ahead!

Making poor choices today only lead to defying those cost to future generations. I'd we had done real investment in efficiency and alternatives in the 1970s our dependance on dwindling fossil fuel resources (along with the environmental costs thereof) would be significantly less.

Icarus

Yes, but the same Luddite environmentalists wanted to kill nuclear power as well.

And there's absolutely no evidence that your fossil fuel resources are dwindling. I've heard this all my life and it just isn't true. The biggest scam of our time may be the belief that this stuff is a "fossil" fuel rather than being generated continuously deep within the reactor of our planet.

The Russians certainly have believed us foolish for thinking oil comes from dinosaurs.

If you have an infinite number of oil wells, each producing almost no oil, would that be enough for each US citizen to fill up their Chevy Tahoe? :madgrin:

op2:

Yeah, and the rest of the other politicians in another certain party are a bunch of appeasers and poll watchers.

It's the American people who are getting drilled--by special interests.

Simple solutions for simple people. :madgrin:

Not a big fan of geology, eh? What precisely do you think oil is and what do you think the interior of the earth is made of? It's not a "chewels" filled with oil, I can assure you.

You can tell that things are getting tight by where we're finding new fields. Almost all of them are smaller and in difficult to reach spots. The only "easy" fields left are in Iraq. Once the Saudis peak, there's going to be a big freak out. Judging by the amount of water they're ramming down their wells these days to maintain field pressure, that day's probably not too far off.

It seems to me if abiotic oil production was real, the oil companies wouldn't be spending so much time and money searching for new oil fields. They could just continue to pump oil from the wells they already have. No need to "drill baby drill".

I am one of those "luddites" who wish to turn away from nuclear power. Event in Japan not withstanding, the fact is that there are a number of facto working against nukes. First is the dwindling urainium resource. I know you don't like to consider the idea of peak oi, but peak uranium is quite real. Te bigger question in my mind is can anyone assure you that the waste product be safely stored for the milleni or so to make it safe? I don't think so. The Russians couldn't keep theirs secure for a generation, much less a couple of thousand year.

Finally, as I have said before, anyone should be permitted to build a new nuke plant under the following conditions. The first is that 100% of the financing must come from the private sector with no tax incentives, or funky bookkeeping. The second is tht they have to insure themselves for 100%of any potential liability. Any takers? I don't think so!

Icarus

I read the report. The caption of this thread does not accurately represent what was revealed. There is no suggestion that 3200 abandoned wells are "possibly leaking." There is a potention for leaks ....yes, but NOT that they are .... or that the number is 3200.

Is that *also* in the tea bag party manifesto ?

Some believe the earth is only ~6000 years old, so it makes it kind of hard to deal with the existence of "fossil" fuel!

Icarus

I am still thinking about Bisco's profound post, quoted above.
The question is - do these guys run out of pop-corn? or is there an endless supply? I believe they run out. The other option is they never run out, but they die of heart disease from all the butter. In either case, the best approach is to stop eating so much of it.

Huh? All those dry wells aren't evidence? If you don't see an empty roll as evidence that your supply of toilet paper is dwindling, well...

So where is the evidence that those wells are filling right back up? Why would we need to drill, if all we need to do is pump?

^^ well, the oil may be accumulating somewhere else. For instance, in his head.

Octane is a tea bagger party supporter. Beliefs replaced rational thought in that group.
I saved this quote some time ago

So I thought about this statement. Let's assume it is correct. In order for us not to be running out of oil, the reactor deep in the planet needs to be creating more than our current demand for oil, roughly 100 Million Barrels per day. At 140 kg per barrel that is 14 x 10^9 kilograms. Or 5.1 x 10^12 kg / year. Since the Earth doesn't know we are using it, it must have been producing at this rate ever since it settled down, say 4 Billion years. in which time it would have created 2x10^22 kilograms of oil. This is about 15 times the mass of all the oceans on Earth, or 0.33% of the total mass of the Earth.

It's a wonder we aren't drowning in the stuff; if it was on the surface it would be 38 km thick.

Don't be confusing people with facts!


I would ask the question of Octane how he thinks this mechanism works,, but he is on my ignore list.

Icarus