Word: bbl
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With oil near $60 a bbl., a mystery of geology becomes more and more intriguing: Where will we find the next great oil discovery to rival such gushers as Alaska's North Slope or Britain's North Sea? One might think the giant oil companies have the answer. But the biggest customers of all are turning to a 79-year-old Texan who operates like the Indiana Jones of the oil patch. Gene Van Dyke is one of the last of the wildcatters, independent operators who roam jungles and deserts looking for black gold. He has become...
...world's next great oil field lies. He is now the largest deepwater license holder in Africa, with 20 million acres under license, an area equivalent to 70% of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater fields. He believes that the region could hold as much as 100 billion bbl., equal to the reserves of such oil powers as Iran or Kuwait. Now wealthy partners are lining up to pay the cost of drilling exploratory wells, which runs into the tens of millions per try. "The Chinese and Indians, they're the ones that are the real, real market...
...decades, is suddenly back in fashion. The public still shudders when recalling the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979 and the disaster at Chernobyl seven years later, but these days, with worldwide demand for energy rising sharply, oil prices spiking at over $60 per bbl., and fears growing among the public at large about the lasting impact of greenhouse gases, the outlook for nuclear today is, well, quite radiant. This September, some 300 executives from the world of energy and politics clambered into a huge hole in the Finnish town of Olkiluoto to watch a laser...
...Saddam get the cash? Starting in 2000, many buyers of Iraqi oil, often using middlemen, deposited a total of $229 million in illegal surcharges--of 10¢ to 30¢ per bbl.--into bank accounts controlled by the Iraqi government. Meanwhile, exporters of food, medicine and other items paid nearly $1.6 billion in kickbacks, often contracted as "inland transportation" or "after-sales service" fees...
...Solar cells can churn out electricity at around 25¢ to 35¢ per kilowatt-hour, falling but still a multiple of the cost of energy from coal-fired power plants. Canada is extracting oil from the tar sands of Alberta for an amazingly efficient price of $15 to $20 per bbl., and the technology exists to convert the U.S.'s huge supply of coal into petroleum. This process, called coal liquefaction, creates a fuel that could power cars and is starting to look economically feasible. Conservation, too, benefits from technology: auto companies are suddenly getting more serious about boosting mileage...