uh....yeah [:D]

Actually they are drilling every where in Weld county, Colorado. I see rigs all over on my way to work. I counted 12 last time I bothered to count. And they move quite often. We are drilling and the supply lines are already in place.

Screw the arabs we don't need their stinkin oil.

We've just been burnin theirs to save ours. HAHAHA

Uhh...we're drilling all the time in the U.S.  There might be MORE drilling going on now because the price of oil has hit an 18 month high, but we're always going at it.

The problem is, in the U.S., an oil reservoir might be 100-500 acres in size.  Now granted, it might be several layers thick.

My Dad and I (both geologists/geophysicists) have been doing work both here an in Kazakhstan.  Over there (VERY US friendly, I might add), individual reservoirs might be 40 sq miles!

So, what it comes down to is cost.  It's much more cost effective to drill a $3 million well in the middle east and Asia where you'll get production for 20 years than in the US where it'll only last 5 or so.

I'm not worried about us running out of oil at all.  We'll either produce the stuff ourselves, or we'll end up buying it from someone else.  OPEC nations will have to sell to somebody, and we'll just buy the excess that other nations grab.

You know, I am in favor of drilling ANWR, and have been for years. But last I knew most if not all of the oil from the Alaska Pipeline is sold to Japan. I say we stop sales to Japan, and keep it all for ourselves.

if it costs more to produce our oil here then so be it. I will gladly pay 2-2.50 a gallon to support an american industry that puts americans back to work. Hell 60%+ of our oil costs are taxes now anyways.

mike

The way all the major companies have integrated, it would not put many American's back to work.  From my experience, the people that have lost their jobs in this field (my field, btw) have been geoscientists that command a high salary.  There aren't a whole lot of us geologists out there any more.  I'm only 25, and I have yet to meet someone even close to my age that is in the same field.  Most are in their late 30's all the way up to 70's.

Since the oil companies haven't been hiring in quite some time, geologists have been going elsewhere for jobs.  Sure, a rise in oil prices would help some, but it wouldn't do as much as you think.

This is just spoken from my own experience.

Here's what I know on this topic.  I have been working on some fields in the former republic of Kazakhstan for the past 2 years.  These fields are in the western part of the country, bordering on the Caspian Sea.

Some of the largest oil fields in history have recently been discovered here, such as Kashagan and Tengiz.  Tengiz is reported to contain approximately 50 [i]billion[/i] barrels of oil.

These fields haven't been tapped very well in the past due to Russia's lack of experience, and in their methodology.  They don't look at seismic data like we do.  And if they decide to, they won't process the data in a manner that helps them like we do.  In effect, we go all out to figure out the geology of the reservoir before the drilling starts.  The Russian's have typically just poked holes in the ground around known producing wells.  The use a specific pattern of placing their wells, just hoping for the best.

When we have worked over their, we use the seismic data to it's max potential.  We drill where we pretty much know oil will be, therefore not wasting much money drilling bad wells.

We have steadily been bringing our technology to the former republics, and all the major oil companies are involved (Exxon-Mobile, BP-Amoco, etc.).  So in effect, we are drilling the oil for ourselves, and the State receives it's own share.

The oil from the Caspian Sea region travels thru pieplines across Armenia, etc., until it hits the Black Sea.  From there, I have no clue how it is transported, either by pipes or by ships.

Sorry this isn't more concise, but I'm kinda tired.

Basically, don't worry about the technology.  It's there.  We've brought it.  We're drilling our way, and are being very productive.  There is more oil there than you could shake an AR at.

Well that just sucks!

It is a little confusing.  The government controls the land.  You make bids on property so that you can drill.  Depending on the agreement you make with the Ministry, the gov't may keep 5-20% of the profits.  It all varies.

Who is drilling?  Well, all the major companies are.  Many smaller companies as well that you would have never heard of.  My Dad and I are working on bringing other clients (ahem...you know who I'm talking to) to the table to purchase other fields.

Many of the oil producing zones are extremely shallow...say maybe 1500-2000m.  Then there are some that are closer to 5000-6000m.  From my experience, most are fairly shallow...especially when compared to how deep we must drill here in the US.

Thickness?  Well, that highly varies.  Anywhere from 60ft or so all the way to 5000ft (no joke!).  

The gas, in the areas I've been working, is being flared off (burned).  But, we believe we can setup local refineries to convert the gas to an alcohol, which could fuel the drilling rigs and pipeline heaters (oil there is very rich in paraffin, and in the winter the pipelines must be heated to keep it from  hardening).

Locals are extremely nice and very helpful.  They are very pro-American, Christian, and are eager to learn English.  So much so, that it's hard to learn Russian or Kazakh because they always want to practice their English.  In fact, my parents are now sponsoring a Kazakh girl as a foreign exchange student, and have obtained a visa for her to come back next year and stay with them for community college.

I hope this info is what you wanted, subsailor.

That 5000ft column is located in the Tengiz reservoir just offshore in the Caspian Sea.




In our experience, yes.  A local company we have partnered with collects 10%.  We (investors and our company) collect 90%.  The major oil companies are required to hir X number of locals to work for them, but I don't know about how they share profits.



I have heard of it getting out by both pipeline and by train.  I believe the pipeline passes thru Armenia, and possibly on thru Turkey from there.  I don't know for sure, tho.



I couldn't tell you if that's an OFFICIAL language or not, but about 90% of the population is Christian (prolly Russian Orthodox, I don't know) and the remaining 10% is mostly Muslim.



Not at all.  It's rare that I get to share something I actually [i]know[/i] something about here on AR15 [:D]