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Permalink Reply by Checkmateking on January 6, 2010 at 3:15

I read the article and it didn't say anything abut the geology of the find.

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Permalink Reply by phaco on January 6, 2010 at 4:25

I read it as saying the oil is 14,000 feet below the sea floor beneath salt ......


Adding to the challenge: The oil that Chevron was pursuing lay beneath a thick layer of salt, which disrupts seismic sound waves and blurs the images like a smudge on a camera lens. The company had to analyze the data with supercomputers to clear up that distortion.

...

In a cabin on the ship's deck, a team of drillers in coveralls monitored computer terminals as they used joysticks to control a drill bit more than 12,800 feet below. The oil they were targeting lay another 14,000 feet underground -- an easy reach for a ship that can drill down 7.5 miles.

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Permalink Reply by king john on January 6, 2010 at 4:27

who cares about geology.... did you see the quote about they could stretch that thing to the moon ! let's see them do that ! lol ,maybe the center of the moon is oil ! better check !!!
on a more serious note, with the ongoing debate about oil being under our salt, it does raise a few geological questions... mostly for me , pressures and thremal . i was under the impression deeper equaled higher levels of both. i suppose more salt could be present ( thicker insulation ), thus preserving the oil deposit.
kj

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Permalink Reply by North LA on January 6, 2010 at 4:32

"Adding to the challenge: The oil that Chevron was pursuing lay beneath a thick layer of salt, which disrupts seismic sound waves and blurs the images like a smudge on a camera lens. The company had to analyze the data with supercomputers to clear up that distortion."

Are there multiple layers of salt or is Louann the only one?

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/gulfocs/subsalt/subsalt.html

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Permalink Reply by Mike on January 10, 2010 at 16:17

Here is a webcast by McMoRan Exploration given by Jim Bob Moffet. They are drilling in 10 feet of water off the coast of La. down below 25,000 feet. During the web cast T Boone Pickens calls in and ask Jim Bob about the heat at those depths. It was pretty interesting. McMoRan is at those depths which is below the salt due to finding Wilcox Sand and potential Tuscolusa Sand.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c...

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Permalink Reply by king john on January 11, 2010 at 3:01

for those of us not in the know...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Energy-XXI-Announces-Major-pz-3901951...
kj

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Permalink Reply by king john on January 11, 2010 at 3:03

jay, any idea how thick the salt is? and also any ideas on temps. ?
kj

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Permalink Reply by Mike on January 11, 2010 at 3:29

Looking at McMorRan's presentation, a slide indicates they are sub salt. This is the same slide Energy XXI used in their recent presentation.
http://www.mcmoran.com/invrel/pres_new.htm
The slike is on the Oct presentation

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Permalink Reply by Catline on January 15, 2010 at 19:48

A sub-salt test was drilled in Webster parish in 1973-74 by Cotton Valley Operators Committe(CVOC).
The well is on Sonris, Serial #142336. The logs can also be veiwed. The Max. Rec. Temp. at TD was
402 deg. from the log heading.

"The CVOC No. 1 Hunt-Hope in Sec. 24, T21N, R10W, Cotton Valley field, Ser# - 142336 Webster Parish, Louisiana, drilled through 3589 ft of Louann Salt and 5086 ft of Eagle Mills (Triassic) red silts and shales before reaching a total depth of 20,395 ft ."

"The Cotton Valley Operators Committee (CVOC) No. 1 Hunt-Hope et al. well was drilled in 1973-74 in the Cotton Valley Field, Webster Parish, Louisiana to 20,395 feet. The object was to drill through the Louann-Werner sequence (Early-Middle Jurassic) and to an additional depth sufficient to determine the age, lithology and structure of the underlying strata. The Louann Salt was found to be 3,589 feet thick; the Werner, approximately 200 feet; the remaining nearly 5,000 feet is considered to be Eagle Mills (Late Triassic)."

Thought this might be of interest.

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