abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1683060.htm
JONATHAN HOLMES: The technology is certainly impressive. This is the Noble Therald Martin, one of 62 marine drilling rigs and ships owned by the Noble Corporation of Texas, and deployed all over the world. The Therald Martin is drilling an exploratory well 200km out in the Gulf of Mexico. It looks and feels as solid as an island, but in fact it’s floating on giant submerged pontoons, anchored to the seafloor 3,500ft - or more than a kilometre - below the surface. 10 years ago, drilling in such depths was impossible. By today’s standards, says Noble’s CEO, it’s almost shallow water.
JAMES DAY, CHAIRMAN & CEO NOBLE CORPORATION: Deep water, a decade ago, was 1,000ft. People used to think 1,000ft would never be passed. We drilled a well recently at 9,000ft of water. We’ve got rigs that are designed for 10,000ft of water, which is about 3.2km, something of that nature.
JONATHAN HOLMES: The precision of modern rigs is extraordinary. Starting at the seabed 3km down, the drill bit can be guided through a further 10km of rock, gradually changing direction, until it’s travelling horizontally. It’s aimed at a sweet spot in a reservoir that’s been mapped by three-dimensional seismic surveys. The target may be no more than a couple of metres square. But all this technology comes at a cost.
My guide on the Noble Therald Martin was the man after whom it was named - senior Noble executive and lifelong oilman, Therald Martin. He manages all Noble’s deep-water rigs in the Gulf.
THERALD MARTIN, DEEP WATER DRILLING SUPT., NOBLE CORP: You can take a land rig, the whole land rig total might cost you $10 million. One single piece of equipment on a semi could cost you more than a total land rig can. The cranes that you see on the rig, these cranes are $2 million a piece to operate them.
JONATHAN HOLMES: A rig like the Therald Martin would cost half a billion dollars to build. All this expense is passed on to the oil companies that hire the rigs, and, ultimately, to the customer at the petrol bowser. So what are your customers having to pay per day?
JAMES DAY, CHAIRMAN & CEO NOBLE CORPORATION: Well, they have to pay for - for, our increased investment. Day rates range from $300,000 to $600,000 per day.
JONATHAN HOLMES: So if they drill a dry hole, that’s a very expensive exercise?
JAMES DAY, CHAIRMAN & CEO NOBLE CORPORATION: It is indeed, and that’s why high oil prices will have to stay in place for a while, because of the cost involved in drilling for that product.
JONATHAN HOLMES: **Therald Martin assured me that in the world’s deep waters, he believes there are vast reservoirs of oil waiting to be found. But his boss, James Day, is not so optimistic. **
JAMES DAY, CHAIRMAN & CEO NOBLE CORPORATION: **The people that I trust and believe - geophysicists, geologists - say the days of the big fields are gone. **
JONATHAN HOLMES:
Only a tiny proportion of the deep ocean floors are thought to cover substantial reservoirs of oil - mainly on the fringes of the South Atlantic, and in the Gulf of Mexico.
JAMES DAY, CHAIRMAN & CEO NOBLE CORPORATION: **While we can drill off West Africa, and they have significant reserves, or Brazil, or the deepwater US Gulf, they’re just going to be replacing what we’re currently consuming. But that’s just treading water. That assumes that we’re not increasing
consumption. **