Reply #7: Cantarell The Worlds Second Largest Oil Field Is Dying [View All]

[chlamor]

Here are some specifics on Cantarell:

"The second largest producing field in the world is the Cantarell complex in Mexico. It lies 85 kim from Ciudad del Carmen.   The field was discovered in 1976 and put on production in 1979.  This is one of the geologically interesting oil fields because the producing formation was created when the Chicxulub meteor impacted the earth.  The upper reservoir is a brecciated dolomite of Uppermost Cretaceous age. The breccia is from a shelf failure (underwater landslide) when the meteor hit.  This 950 foot thick rubble became the reservoir for one of the biggest fields in the world."
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"Originally the field had 35 billion barrels of oil in place.  Now, in place oil is not reserves.  They expect to get around 50% of that oil out of the ground to market. The field reached an early peak in production of 1.1 million barrels per day in April of 1981 from 40 oil wells. By 1994 the production was down to 890,000 barrels of oil per day.  At that time, cumulative production was 4.8 billion barrels.  In 1995 it was producing 1 million barrels per day and the Mexican government decided to invest in that field to raise the production level.  They built 26 new platforms, drilled lots of new wells and built the largest nitrogen extraction facility capable of injecting a billion cubic feet of nitrogen per day to maintain reservoir pressure.  Doing this raised the oil production rate in 2001 to 2.2 million barrels per day.  Today the field produces 2.1 million barrels."
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 A couple of weeks ago I ran into this from the oil industry rags I read. It is a chilling thought since this is the 2nd biggest producer of oil on earth. Ghawar produces 4.5 million bbl/day, Cantarell, 2.2 million bbl/day, Da Qing and Burgun around 1 million per day.

       "Supergiant Cantarell continues to be the mainstay of Mexican oil production, with 2.1 MMb/d of output in 2003 up from 1.9 MMb/d in 2002. However, Cantarell is expected to decline rapidly over the next few years, falling as far as 1 MM b/d by 2008. This has given particular urgency to Pemex's efforts to develop other fields and move into deepwater." For now, Pemex's best alternative project is the heavy-oil complex known as Ku-Maloob-Zaap, in Campeche Bay close to Cantarell. Output from this complex was 288,000 b/d in 2003 and is expected to rise to about 800,000 b/d by the end of the decade." 
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And one must remember that all oil fields which are producing today, are in the process of declining.

"The implications of this upcoming decline are tremendous to the world. This field produces half of what Ghawar does and it won't be doing that much longer.  The effect on the energy supply will be felt and there is no way for that not to happen.  On Aug. 3, 2004, the OPEC president stated that OPEC has no more spare capacity.  They are pumping all out and can't satisfy the demand for oil.  If fields like Cantarell begin declining, the problem of supplying the world with oil will only get worse."
Link:
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cantarell.htm