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Gulf Drillin'

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Submitted by shadoweyes on Wed, 2006-11-08 10:05

If you have any interest in what it takes to get oil out of the Gulf of Mexico, the NY Times has a story for you.

To picture the challenge, imagine flying above New York City at 30,000 feet and aiming a drill tip the size of a coffee can at the pitcher’s mound in Yankee Stadium. Then imagine doing it in the dark, at $100 million a go.

Even after hitting pay dirt, it will take another decade and billions of dollars to transform oil from these ultra-deep reserves into gasoline. Some of the technology to pump the sludge from these depths, at these pressures and temperatures, has not yet been developed; only about a dozen ships can drill wells that deep, and no one knows for sure how much oil is down there.

This certainly gives a greater window into the expense of oil discovery.