The prospect of drilling, digging, and shipping hydrocarbons is not chimerical, but a realistic near-term solution to the economic woes of both Ireland and America.
FORBES: America Take Note: Technology Unleashes Black Gold to Rescue Ireland's Economy
Late last year Chevron and deepwater driller Transocean incurred a relatively minor spill of a couple thousand barrels of oil-laced drilling mud at the Frade prospect they were drilling off the coast of Brazil.
FORBES: Thumbing Nose At Brazil, Chevron Is Near Deal With Argentina's YPF
Going forward, will each drilling prospect have to be carved into a separate legal entity with significantly higher insurance?
But with constituents of some rural areas complaining that they do not like wind farms, the prospect of gas drilling in nearby fields may prove equally politically sensitive.
BBC: Gas-fired power stations to be encouraged by government
Next up in that area was the drilling of another prospect 9 miles away at Blackbeard East .
What is clear is that much useful information is being gleaned about how to deal with a disaster of this kind, which can be expected to happen again, and other kinds of spills, as the prospect of deep-water drilling for oil is realised.
FORBES: Blame Big Bad BP For Now, but Where Is the Next Oil to Come From?
Surprisingly, life goes on in the deepwater, with the Mineral Management Service having unexpectedly approved a handful of permits to drill wells in waters even deeper than the Macondo prospect despite a moratorium on new drilling.
Yet Congress has enacted no meaningful steps to remove the ban against most offshore drilling, despite the almost certain prospect in years ahead that the OCS would substantially boost U.S. domestic oil and natural gas output.
Shale drilling has also created jobs and the prospect of greater energy independence, while raising environmental concerns.
Williams explained that the rig had already been working the Macondo prospect longer than anticipated because of delays caused by drilling problems.
FORBES: BP Oil Spill Update: Some Good News, And A Lot of Bad News
Although environmentalists are concerned by this melting trend, shipping and energy companies are salivating at the prospect of smaller ice caps, which makes Arctic drilling and commerce easier.
The new link should allow other, further-flung fields to be exploited, such as the Lagavulin oil prospect, 250km north of the Shetlands, where Chevron began exploratory drilling in October.
ECONOMIST: The final frontier for Britain��s oil and gas industry
After suffering a punishing year because of low natural gas prices, the wind power industry is keeping close watch on the prospect that water pollution from hydraulic fracturing may lead to regulation of shale gas drilling.
FORBES: Wind Power's Future May Depend On Gas Fracking's Fate: Panel
Deepwater Horizon was drilling for BP on part of the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 known as the Macondo prospect, in 1, 500m (5, 000ft) of water.
BBC: Tackling oil rig disaster 'number one priority' - Obama
The complex deepwater drilling recently perfected by Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled company, has suddenly raised the prospect of Brazil becoming one of the world's biggest producers.
应用推荐