Clarifying the Chevron announcement
Remember the huge oil field discovery in the Gulf of Mexico that Chevron announced earlier this week? The one that oil lovers and energy independence advocates everywhere breathlessly championed as the savior of American energy? Well, it turns out everyone should take another breath. The Energy Bulletin released a clarification on Wednesday raining on Chevron’s ...
Remember the huge oil field discovery in the Gulf of Mexico that Chevron announced earlier this week? The one that oil lovers and energy independence advocates everywhere breathlessly championed as the savior of American energy? Well, it turns out everyone should take another breath.
The Energy Bulletin released a clarification on Wednesday raining on Chevron’s parade and even suggesting that there are “political motivations behind the announcement”:
The September 5th announcement by Chevron and Devon and Statoil of the huge Gulf of Mexico discovery should be clarified. The announcement claims that the discovery could increase US proven reserves of oil by as much as 50%. However, the total amounts are highly speculative. …
The area will not come online for at least 4 years and, at a full rate, for at least 7 years. Further, it is likely that there are political motivations behind the announcement, as the vote to open offshore drilling in the United States is upcoming in the US Senate.
The Bulletin goes on to state that the discovery is probably not oil, but natural gas. And Chevron gets a thinly-veiled slam for announcing such a “discovery” just weeks before Congress is due to decide on whether to lift a 25-year ban on coastal drilling. The Bulletin continues:
[T]he announcement is reminiscent of the Mexican “huge oil discovery” announced last year, of a possible 10 billion barrels, which was quietly revised this year to around 43 million barrels, a downward revision of 99.57%. This similar “discovery” was made in Mexico last year a few months before the Mexican parliament was to vote on Pemex (state oil co)’s budget and rights to expand drilling.
Ouch.
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