The Gulf of Mexico, stung by the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history in 2010 and then overshadowed by the onshore fracking boom, is on the verge of its biggest supply surge ever, adding to the American oil renaissance.
Over the next three years, the Gulf is poised to deliver a slug of more than 700,000 barrels per day of new crude, reversing a decline in production and potentially rivaling shale hot spots like Texas's Eagle Ford formation in terms of growth.
The revival began this summer, when Royal Dutch Shell's 100,000 barrels per day Olympus platform was towed out to sea 130 miles (210 km) south of New Orleans - the first of seven new ultra-modern systems starting up through 2016. It weighs 120,000 tons, more than 200 Boeing 777 jumbo jets.
Rising domestic production and the start of natural gas exports may transform the economy and realign geopolitics as U.S. reliance on foreign oil declines.
"A barrel of discovered oil in the Gulf of Mexico is difficult to beat for value anywhere else, even with the increased costs of doing business," said Jez Averty, senior vice president of North American exploration at Norway's Statoil.
Even after decades of production in the Gulf, government estimates have shown that 48 billion barrels could still be recovered.
The area of the Gulf of Mexico where most of the new infrastructure will start up is in an ancient geological trend in its deepest waters 200 miles or more from shore known as the Lower Tertiary.
Appraisals in the Gulf's Lower Tertiary have shown fields that could have half a billion barrels or more of oil, like Exxon Mobil Corp's Hadrian, estimated to hold up to 700 million barrels, or Anadarko Petroleum Corp's Shenandoah, which tests this year showed could hold up to three times more than initial estimates of 300 million barrels.
The potential bounty of massive deposits that can produce for a quarter century or more is what keeps players coming even though a single well that bores tens of thousands of feet through thick salt and rock to strike oil - or a dry hole - can cost $130 million or more.
Source: Reuters
