Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Gods of the Rotary Table
Charlie Brister, ASPO-USA
Recently I heard a story about a drill crew in a distant land that performed a ritual on a rig floor. They poured the blood of a sacrificed goat down the hole to appease the “gods”. Perhaps they thought that this would help get the drillstring free allowing them to drill ahead without further problems. You’d think that us Westerners would scoff at such desperation, but I knew exactly how that crew felt. Somehow it seems that some projects are at the mercy of the “Gods of the Rotary Table”, as we sometimes say. Some wells can make even the most scientifically minded somewhat superstitious. It’s almost as though the gods are like those of the Greeks that often taunted and toyed with their hapless humans. If we were ancient Greeks, the drilling god would be Hades, god of the underworld provoking us with stuck pipe, loss of circulation, blowouts and the occasional sacrifice of life on the rig floor. We call these “wells from hell” for a reason.
There is the story of the Russian Rig that picked up the sound of screaming souls in the earth at 45,000 feet where the claim is that they drilled into hell itself. Maybe they did hear screams; the earth holds secrets that our mind wants to conjure, even if it is the screams of the damned. Most of us who work in this industry are used to being damned, so those screams were probably just the cries of rig hands screaming in the underworld for a crew change.
There are petroleum geologists who have a “spiritual” view of a hole in the ground, of sorts. At the outset of the founding of geology as a science, the message in the rocks contrasted with religious traditions and the great battle between evolution and creation began. Maybe it is their godless reputation that makes geologists’ word less respected by the doubters of Peak Oil. The better petroleum geologists did not get into this business because of the money… their journey started as children looking at rocks in wonder. The great mystery of the rocks is what drives most that I have met. Their view of this earth and the forces that shaped it is still the best tool for finding petroleum.
To geologists, a drilling rig is a time machine. Spudding into recent sediment and continuing through layers of rock, then identifying index fossils that have been given ages based on carbon dating. If you drill deep enough you eventually hit “basement” rock -Precambrian Granite, where evidence of life forms diminish and eventually cease. It is in this basement rock that some would have us believe that a virtual unlimited supply of petroleum exits. This oil came without needing life to form- “abiotic” oil. All we have to do is drill deeper. Could there be “abiotic” petroleum? Only the gods of the rotary table know. I say this because the existence of such hydrocarbons would be purely a matter of faith until confirmed by a drill bit.
Somehow, the reality of drilling a hole thousands of feet into the earth invokes some deep primal instincts. We are in a 21st century quest for fire. The reality is that our civilization is kept alive by millions of holes in the earth drilled by men and iron. Those who have accepted the concept of Peak Oil understand the staggering challenge that we face, as limits come into focus. To some, technology has become the new god that will provide the solutions. Without doubt, our technology will be important. However, oil drilling is not a virtual reality business. It is exactly the opposite. Oil drilling is a matter of using tons of iron in a reality that is about as stark as it gets. Even in this technological age, drillers become superstitious as they try to comprehend the forces at work against them. The concept of abiotic hydrocarbons strikes me as being a new superstition that brings comfort to those who refuse to face the reality of a world that will change. Those faithful to the concept of abiotic oil will pray to the “Gods of the Rotary Table” for salvation.
Charlie Brister is a Directional Driller presently working in the Rocky Mountains. He has 30 years combined experience in oil exploration, solar technology and power generation.
(24 December 2007)
Big Oil’s highway robbery
Heath Aston and Brad Watts, Daily Telegraph
PETROL companies have been accused of price gouging after the consumer watchdog issued a “please explain” over rising Christmas prices.
With average unleaded prices remaining above $1.40 a litre in Sydney yesterday, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) has demanded justification from the bosses of oil giants Caltex, Shell, Mobil, BP, as well as supermarket empires Woolworths and Coles.
An emboldened ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel has been given the task of “actively monitoring” prices by the Rudd Government.
He noted a “recent significant divergence of the price of unleaded petrol in Australia relative to international price movements”.
(24 December 2007)
New Type of Coal Plant Moves Ahead, Haltingly
Matthew L. Wald, New York Times
The nation’s leading effort to build a coal-fired electric plant that will capture and store its carbon emissions will take a shaky step forward on Tuesday, when the consortium building it announces a location for the $1.5 billion plant.
But choosing a location may be the least of the problems for the builders, with the Energy Department making ambiguous statements about its commitment to the project.
The department, which is supposed to pay for most of the work, called the announcement on a location “inadvisable” and seemed to distance itself from the plans, saying in a letter last week that it was “evaluating what the department’s next actions should be” with respect to the consortium and the project. Administration officials have publicly expressed worry over rapidly rising costs.
The squabble shows that despite the dire tone emerging from global negotiations over climate change, and the Bush administration’s insistence on technological leaps as the answer, finding them is likely to be tricky.
(18 December 2007)
Uranium deposit sparks controversy in Pittsylvania County
WDBJ tv (Virginia)
As energy prices climb, a Pittsylvania County landowner says he has an alternative source of energy, if only the Commonwealth would lift its moratorium on uranium mining. It’s been said that Walter Coles has the largest untapped deposit of uranium in the United States on his property, and he’s interested in mining for it.
Walter Coles began drilling on Monday to test the deposit which sits on his 1,000 acre farm in Chatham. The deposit was first discovered in the 80s, but after heavy opposition and a drop in uranium prices the project was scrapped.
(19 December 2007)
Related: Drilling begins at Coles Hill (text and video)
