I know the op-ed page at the Washington Times can be a little wacky (I’m being kind) sometimes (doubly so when they publish Cal Thomas) but can someone please tell me how much truth there might be to this Bruce Bartlett column?
Read:
On April 16, Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, published a startling report that old oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico were somehow being refilled. That is, new oil was being discovered in fields where it previously had not existed.
Scientists, led by Mahlon Kennicutt of Texas A&M University, speculate that the new oil is surging upward from deposits well below those currently in production. "Very light oil and gas were being injected from below, even as the producing was going on," he said.
Surely there are some readers here in the drilling industry. Anyone care to add some genuine experience or first-hand knowledge here? Just click on the Drinks below.
As a mechanical engineer working in the oil & gas industry in Canada, it doesn't really surprise me to hear of such a report in the Washington Times. There has been speculation in the past that deep deep oil deposits are "recharging" existing fields, but it still ins't a mainstream viewpoint.
Who knew you had so many mechanical engineers reading your blog?
Thomas Gold has had alternative theories on the origins of crude oil for some time now. Check this out.
It's been fair to say that his ideas are not generally accepted, but I'm not current on the topic.
It's also possible that the field is being recharged by lateral flow from an unmapped part of the producing formation.
The Thomas Gold theories are indeed intriguing. There are some questions about oil fields, I've always wanted answewred but am too lazy to do the research. Simple questions like "what would be the necessary biomass and bio density of a forest/swamp/etc needed to produce the types of deposits we are finding now? Could we bury the entire current biomass and produce the type of reserves we have now? Where was the North slope of Alaska before the continents drifted that made for the rich deposits of oil now? Check out his page at:
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/tg21/
