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Lost in the big news last week -- the race for the Democratic nomination, the reeling U.S. economy, the ongoing life/death saga that is "Dancing with the Stars" -- came word that a new deep-water exploration area off the coast of Brazil could contain as much as 33 billion barrels of oil. How much is that? If estimates are accurate, the Brazilian find would amount to the world’s third-largest oil reserve. In comparison, the U.S. has proven oil reserves of 21.8 billion barrels.

Just what the latest Brazil find (dubbed "Sugarloaf Mountain") could mean to our oil-ravenous world isn’t yet completely clear, but the Associated Press quoted Roger Read, an energy analyst at New York-based investment bank Natixis Bleichroeder Inc., as saying, "This would lay to rest some of the peak oil pronouncements that we were out of oil, that we weren't going to find any more, and that we have to change our way of life."

The find also brings up a name worth remembering: Thomas Gold. The Austrian-born astrophysicist, who died in 2004, was a renowned maverick in the science community, a brilliant rogue whose anti-establishment proclamations were often proven right. For instance, in the 1960s, as NASA began its assault on the moon, many scientists debated whether the moon's surface was comprised of hard rock or might in fact be a layer of dust so thick that, upon touchdown, the Apollo lunar modules would sink out of sight. Gold, studying evidence from microimpacts, moon cratering, electrostatic fields, and more, boldly predicted that the astronauts' boots would sink into the lunar regolith no more than three centimeters. And, give or take a centimeter or so, he was proven right.

What does Gold have to do with the recent Brazil oil find? In 1999, Gold published "The Deep Hot Biosphere," a paper that postulated that coal and oil are produced not by the decomposition of organic materials, but in fact are "abiogenic" -- the product of tectonic forces; i.e., deeply embedded hydrocarbons being brought up and through the earth's mantle and transformed into their present states by bacteria living in the earth's crust.

The majority of the world’s scientists scoff at Gold's theory, and "fossil fuel" remains the accepted descriptor of oil. Yet in recent years Russia has quietly become the world's top producer of oil, in part by drilling wells as deep as 40,000 feet -- far below the graveyards of T-Rex and his Mesozoic buddies.

Is it possible that Thomas Gold was right again, and that the earth is actually still producing oil? It's tantalizing to think so. Meantime, whether or not Brazil's recent find adds support to Gold's theory, for sure it's good news for Brazilians: Government-run Petrobras is one of the world's leaders in ultra-deep offshore oil extraction, and Sugarloaf Mountain alone could transform Brazil into another Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

For now, stay tuned. The earth may yet prove to have a heart of Gold.


Source: Is The Earth Producing MORE Oil? | Editorial Blog at Motor Trend

Gullwing

cool

Va Va Voom

Wow this is great news I was getting upset today as i watched a BMW M3 scream past me because when I'm driving and old enough to insure my Rs4 the petrol will cost a bomb so i properly won't be able to get one which is heart breaking
(Crowd goes 'Awwwwwwwwwwww')

The Diva

T Gold! the Steady-State Universe and PULSAR guy.

Of course!

More oil would do the world good, but it would be a band aid.

What we really need are economically feasable and renewable energy souces !

Now if we could PRODUCE oil ... wow....

Bruce

Oh great. Yet another reason to ignore the Earth's continuing decay. And hey, if it's Brazil that's got the oil, I guess we can afford to cut down another millions of hectres of rainforest to access this newly-found source?

Sounds real dandy.

coolraoul

It may'll make the iol slightly less expensive in the near future... But not more.

Oil-time is over. We won't change our way of life by lack of oil, but because of the earth pollution...and because we will find better ways to get energy.

Someone said...the stone era didn't end because of a lack of stone, but because we discovered steel. Same with the oil, the future is somewhere else.

But like Piëch (I think it was him) said... now we don't have horses any more...the only horses we are still using are the race-horses! Same will go for the car, the last drop of oil will go in a Porsche or a Ferrari.

The Diva

ummmm.... it's offshore... no rainforests there, just fish.

Anyway, Brasil did a real doozy by flooding acres of land (forest and villages) and altering South America's climate with their wonderful hydroelectric dam.

Bruce

Oh....Err..

Shows how much I read of the above article... Thanks for the heads up Diva.

But anyway, the fish population won't be too happy either.

BMW_Owner

WHat we really need is to figure out how to crack water similar to photosynthesis. If you know how, share with me. We will make billions...

Mikael

Credit Suisse sees Brazil oil reserve smaller, but is bullish

By Andrei Khalip
Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:17pm EDT

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - A giant Brazilian oil reserve estimate that came out this week is overblown, but a larger area encompassing the find could indeed contain 33 billion barrels, Credit Suisse energy analysts said on Wednesday.

The analysts stressed they remain bullish on the country's oil prospects in the so-called subsalt cluster and consider feasible the reserve estimate in a structure known as Sugar Loaf, including blocks that are still not under concession.

The four licensed blocks would at best contain about half that amount, according to available estimates, they said. These blocks also involve more oil firms than the partners in the BMS-9 Carioca find in the Santos basin.

Brazil's Petrobras, BG Group Plc and Repsol-YPF are the partners in BMS-9. Other companies involved in Sugar Loaf blocks are Hess Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Portugal's Galp.

The head of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), Haroldo Lima, said on Monday that Carioca could contain 33 billion barrels of oil equivalent, although the government's ANP distanced itself from his statement later and field operator Petrobras said more drilling and studies were needed.

"We are bullish on the Brazilian pre-salt play, but we're also trying to keep this story grounded in reality," analyst Mark Flannery told a conference call after last week's visit by a team from Credit Suisse Global Energy to Brazil.

"We believe Lima was saying that the whole Sugar Loaf structure might contain 33 billion barrels. That's something we certainly think is possible," he said, explaining that part of the confusion was in the name Carioca, sometimes applied just to the BMS-9 find, and at times to the whole Sugar Loaf area.

Credit Suisse works with a "risked estimate" of 6.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent for the four-block part of Sugar Loaf under concessions and a more optimistic "blue sky" estimate of 15 billion barrels. That includes the BMS-9 range of between 2 billion boe and 5 billion boe.

Doubling the blue-sky estimate to account for unlicensed blocks would give a number similar to that provided by Lima, "without having to do any complicated math or rely on any hard new information, of which there is none," Flannery said.

Analysts cautioned that far more drilling and reservoir testing were still required and did not expect massive subsalt development projects at least in the next four to eight years.

"Being more or less bullish on Brazil resources is different from willing to pay for it all up front," said Emerson Leite, Credit Suisse's Brazil-based analyst.

But optimism seemed to prevail anyhow.

"We felt a high level of excitement with the whole play ... which is giving us confidence that the resource potential is indeed big," he said. All the 17 wells drilled to the subsalt cluster struck hydrocarbons, while the eight tested so far have shown a very good productivity potential, Leite said.

An eventual confirmation of Sugar Loaf reserves would provide the most upside potential for stock of Petrobras, which is a partner in all Sugar Loaf blocks, and Britain's BG, analysts said. Repsol and Galp were to benefit too.

Petrobras shares retreated 1.3 percent after two days of big gains, while BG added 0.7 percent to Tuesday's rise.

Including subsalt finds in the Santos, Espirito Santo and Campos basins, Brazil is looking at potential reserves of between 70 billion and 100 billion boe, compared with its modest 12 billion barrels of oil now, industry estimates show.


UPDATE 1-CS sees Brazil oil reserve smaller, but is bullish | Reuters