Gulf of Mexico

I got my January Offshore Magazine today. It had a whole section on the
Gulf of Mexico, which has been the US mainstay of production. The
deepwater (>1000 ft of water) has staved off the decline but the number
of discoveries is down. Here is what the magazine says:

"The number of deepwater discoveries in the US Gulf of Mexico continued
a downward trend in 2004, dropping to 12 last year from 17 in 2003 and
21 in 2002.' Jaime Kammerzell, "Deepwater GoM Discoveries Thinning,"
Offshore, Jan 2005, p. 25
and
       "The Gulf of Mexico shelf has a serious problem--declining
production that is not being arrested. Production from shelf wells has
dropped from above 333 MMbbl and 4.8 tcf in 2000 to a projected 186
MMbbl and 2.5 tcf in 2004. The 244 MMbbl of produced oil in 2003 is
down 27% from 2000. Oil production for 2004 is expected to drop 44% from
2000. Gas production in 2003 at 3.3 tcf is down 1.5 tcf, 31% off the
4.8 tcf produced in 2000." James Dodson, Ted Dodson, Victor Schmidt,
"GoM deep Shelf Incentive Fails to Overcome Decline," Offshore, Jan
2005, p. 35

Only the rise in deepwater production has allowed the oil produced to be
the same, but not really increase
Received on Thu Feb 3 20:57:37 2005