The Future of Oil
THE FUTURE OF OIL
Contents
1. Extreme oil--from the deep Atlantic to the arctic, from fracking in the U.S. to sands in Canada--is replacing dwindling supplies. But it comes at a heavy economic and environmental cost 2. The Bakken Boom 3. Boom and Bust 4. The True Price of Oil 5. OIL ON THE EDGE 6. TIGHT OIL 7. ARCTIC OFFSHORE 8. PRESALT DEEPWATER 9. OIL SHALE 10. OIL SANDS 11. HOW SPIKING OIL AFFECTS YOU 12. A RECORD PRICE FOR REGULAR 13. INCOME AND GAS 14. SAVING FUEL
ENVIRONMENT | EXTREME OIL
Extreme oil--from the deep Atlantic to the arctic, from fracking in the U.S. to sands in Canada--is replacing dwindling supplies. But it comes at a heavy economic and environmental cost
The waters of the Atlantic Ocean 180 miles east of Rio de Janeiro are a cobalt blue that appears bottomless. But it only seems that way. Some 7,000 ft. beneath the choppy surface lies the silent seafloor, and below that is 5,000 ft. of salt rock, deposited when the continents of South America and Africa went their separate ways 160 million years ago.
Underneath it all is oil. By one count, the presalt reservoirs off the central coast of Brazil hold as much as 100 billion barrels of crude; that's another Kuwait. It's why former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the presalt finds a "gift of God," and it's why the massive Cidade de Angra dos Reis floating oil-production facility--operated by Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil giant--is anchored in the Atlantic, pumping 68,000 barrels of crude a day from one of the deepest wells in the world. The platform deck is so big you could play the Super Bowl on it, if not for the nest of interlocking pipes and valves that circulate oil, methane and steam throughout the ship. As I tour the deck in an orange safety jumper, a Petrobras engineer named Humberto Americano Romanus urges me to put a hand to one of the oilpipes. I can feel it pulse like an artery, the oil still warm
Contents
1. Extreme oil--from the deep Atlantic to the arctic, from fracking in the U.S. to sands in Canada--is replacing dwindling supplies. But it comes at a heavy economic and environmental cost 2. The Bakken Boom 3. Boom and Bust 4. The True Price of Oil 5. OIL ON THE EDGE 6. TIGHT OIL 7. ARCTIC OFFSHORE 8. PRESALT DEEPWATER 9. OIL SHALE 10. OIL SANDS 11. HOW SPIKING OIL AFFECTS YOU 12. A RECORD PRICE FOR REGULAR 13. INCOME AND GAS 14. SAVING FUEL
ENVIRONMENT | EXTREME OIL
Extreme oil--from the deep Atlantic to the arctic, from fracking in the U.S. to sands in Canada--is replacing dwindling supplies. But it comes at a heavy economic and environmental cost
The waters of the Atlantic Ocean 180 miles east of Rio de Janeiro are a cobalt blue that appears bottomless. But it only seems that way. Some 7,000 ft. beneath the choppy surface lies the silent seafloor, and below that is 5,000 ft. of salt rock, deposited when the continents of South America and Africa went their separate ways 160 million years ago.
Underneath it all is oil. By one count, the presalt reservoirs off the central coast of Brazil hold as much as 100 billion barrels of crude; that's another Kuwait. It's why former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the presalt finds a "gift of God," and it's why the massive Cidade de Angra dos Reis floating oil-production facility--operated by Petrobras, Brazil's state-run oil giant--is anchored in the Atlantic, pumping 68,000 barrels of crude a day from one of the deepest wells in the world. The platform deck is so big you could play the Super Bowl on it, if not for the nest of interlocking pipes and valves that circulate oil, methane and steam throughout the ship. As I tour the deck in an orange safety jumper, a Petrobras engineer named Humberto Americano Romanus urges me to put a hand to one of the oilpipes. I can feel it pulse like an artery, the oil still warm