Given the cost of Deepwater operations, only the largest, most promising prospects are likely to be drilled. Many of the active leases - colored green in the detail above - will expire without a well ever being drilled on them.
Water depths on this map exceed 10,000 feet in some places.
To the operator, a deepwater lease represents an option, something that may prove valuable over the next ten years if nearby discoveries are made and if the price of gas and oil stays high and if technology and infrastructure develop in such a way that it becomes feasible to develop a lease.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Deepwater 4
Offshore GOM 101
