Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Atlantis - a Silver BB

It's the name of an oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico. The US Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service describes Atlantis in this article. It is now pumping first oil, 9 years after discovery. It will max out at 200K/bpd over a lifetime of 15 productive years. Keep in mind that it won't be producing at that level the entire time.

This is a very deep oilfield. Even assuming technology improvements, future deep water discoveries, and those that may occur in the Arctic, will likely take 5 years or more to develop before pumping first oil. Another year or two may be needed before reaching the maximum production capacity. This won't save us from energy dependence on foreign sources. It won't save us from peak oil, merely mitigate the impact.

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