Oil exploration in Southwest Florida
I’m not sure how many people realize that there is a history of oil production in Southwest Florida. Though I grew up in Florida and have been studying energy issues for many years, I first heard of the Sunniland Trend this morning.
Apparently, there is a “massive, onshore oil reserve” that stretches from Ft. Myers on the west coast all the way to Miami on the east coast. The deposit was discovered by Humble Oil (one of the predecessor companies of the company now known as ExxonMobil) in 1943. Before running “dry” using the technology available at the time, the deposit produced about 100 million barrels of oil.
Now it appears that there is growing interest in using more modern techniques that include 3-D seismic analysis to locate the productive pockets and horizontal drilling to increase the size of the reservoir that can be tapped from a single drill site. The motivation to use these techniques comes from the continued existence of oil prices in the $90-$120 per barrel range; roughly 5-10 times the prices that existed when production fell off in the mid-1980s
The geology of my home state makes it unlikely that the widely discussed technique of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) will be included on the menu of ways to increase oil production. After all, that technique is generally applied to tight, shale rock formations while the layers of sediment that lie deep under Florida are already porous enough to allow reasonably free flow of whatever oil might be there.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons that south Florida has never been a very productive oil and gas region. Porous layers of sedimentary rock are beneficial to oil and gas producers as a place where the material can be stored to wait for their drill bits, but the formation of productive hydrocarbon reservoirs that can be tapped to provide large quantities of fuel requires boundaries of dense, sealing layers of rock. Otherwise, trapped organic material that decays over millions of years to form hydrocarbons will just seep out and dissipate.
Not surprisingly, the notion of drilling and extracting oil is not universally welcomed in a state that was severely harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Proponents of the activity, however, claim that such an event cannot happen in the areas they want to drill; the oil deep underground is under such low pressure that it has to be pumped to the surface. If that is true, there is no danger of anything remotely similar to the blowout and continued gushing that occurred in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Of course, there is always the possibility of a loss of control of drilling chemicals and drilling waste materials that are an inevitable part of sinking deep holes into the ground and pulling potentially hazardous materials up through the same layers that contain drinking water.
Perhaps one of the reasons there is a substantial protest movement growing is that the resource companies that owned the wells that ran dry sold off the surface area for housing developments, a more conventional Floridian money making scheme. The residents of those developments are not particularly happy about living within a few hundred feet of oil wells, especially since the resource company apparently maintained the mineral rights under their homes.
NIMBY (not in my backyard) protests get very loud when there are not even any royalty payments to make up for the potential property damage and lifestyle changes that happen with resource extraction operations.
Some of the residents probably never considered the possibility of nearby oil well development since they live just outside the boundary of Big Cypress National Preserve. Many people think of national preserves as places protected from such intrusions. However, Big Cypress was formed from land donated by the Collier family under the condition that it would be available for “reasonable use and enjoyment of privately owned oil and gas interests”.
As far as I can tell; there is no possibility of the onshore areas of Southwest Florida ever producing marketable natural gas. There is little doubt that the organic-rich sediments have produced a lot of methane over the years, but none of it has been trapped in productive reservoirs.
Interesting article! I’m from Naples, FL and I had no idea that there was an oil reserve in the area. I can see people also protesting against oil drilling because the everglades are a massive wildlife refuge area with many endangered species.
A good follow-up by the proceeds of Pandora would be to invite reps of all top environmental groups to a single forum and have a live webcast of their qualms about PP and nuclear energy to get it out exactly where they stand and won’t waver. Have them publically outright endorse/excuse oil and gas production and use over nuclear’s record. That’s what the public’s really missing here. There’s no fire of outrage in the belly to change because they’re clueless of nuclear’s true record and the opposition’s — which green groups don’t hawk.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Oil from Florida’s approximately 52 existing wells (2005) in 11 fields is rapidly drying up. I have no doubt theyll go for it eventually. The two sites in Florida are also being considered for fracking that are roughly I believe in the same area(s) you mentioned. Sunniland field in southwest Florida and the Jay field in the Panhandle.
Century Oil is considering Florida oil fracking. I think N gas is still on the table as well rod.
After development, accidents and contamination issues I am also very worried about subsidence. I think the issue has been grossly glossed over but is critical, as in Louisiana, and beyond the Mississippi delta regions.
It’s a pity that The Oil Drum is going inactive. It would be fascinating to get an essay on Floridian petro-geology and how drilling is going in the second round.
If the oil companies are smart, they’ll “greenwash” the oil operation by building a few windmills to provide the power to pump the oil (and of course, diesel or methane backup generators for when the wind isn’t blowing, most of the time).
I bet that would even pay them back – because, I may be wrong, but at current oil prices, I think even “expensive” wind power is considerably cheaper than oil? Why burn their product to pump the product, if they can use wind to do it part of the time, at least?
Excellent point. The same might work in the Athabasca area, if winds are strong there (they’re phenomenal in SK). Excess electricity could be dumped to heaters to generate steam, displacing natural gas.
On July 4th there was a protest in Naples for oil drilling that was about 1000 feet from homes ( http://www.fox4now.com/news/local/214340601.html )
Im not sure if many of you are watching it but for a few days now the oil train story in Canada has been horrific if not all but ignored by the press. A train carrying oil (100 tons per car – 72 cars) broke free and derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec setting off explosions. 5 people are confirmed dead with 40 still missing. ( http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/08/lac_megantic_quebec_train_derailment_site_still_too_hot_to_search_for_40_missing.html ).
Actually its just starting to get press. After a few days. Fukushima was front and center for months, with every nut and quack giving “expert” assessments, and it had no casualties. This has several and with oil still burning in the sewers and headed towards water is also likely to be much more environmentally destructive as well.
I know that it’s had major news time here in Canada (Calgary, Alberta).
It’s big news here as we are pretty much a close to Pipeline Central as you can get.
I hope most of the missing are staying with relatives Curtis. I was looking at the area on google earth and the reports say there was a live performance at the Musi-Cafe ( 5078 Frontenac, Lac-Mégantic ) which looks to be only about 100 meters from the bend in the railroad. Above it its a straight shot into town. I can see how the cars could slide in that direction. I hope people were able to get out in the confusion and navigate to safety.
Train story ?
What about this one from Richard Lester, head of nuclear science at MIT.
Coal produces 40% of the US electricity. A one year supply would require a 50 thousand miles long train.
Nuclear produces 20% of the US electricity. A one year supply would require a ONE mile long train.
Listen here :
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/07/08/nuclear-power-future
Did you see the pictures of the town pretty much leveled by that train explosion? It looks like Dresden after the firebombing. The whole place was burned out. And Fukushima did nothing like that, yet the press beat it to death. Here is a real-life disaster and tragedy just across our border and it gets essentially no coverage, but something 15,000 miles away with no damage beyond the plant boundaries was covered like white on rice.
Not just that, but any number of refinery and chemical-plant explosions and train accidents have had more and worse casualties than the Fukushima meltdowns.
This totally irrational fear of harmless things must be called what it is: a rampant phobia.
It got quite some press in France. At start the Asiana flight had more, but it’s starting to get big.
That Musi-Cafe has been leveled. I hope people had a warning and time to escape, but I’m not convinced.
Exactly the same Australia. No coverage for the first couple of days, but it’s getting several minutes coverage on television news and from half a page or so in newspapers now there are some personal anecdotes and some ‘facts’ starting to emerge. Hope for the best for the ~40 missing people.
In the telegraph today there is a “Former Fukushima nuclear plant boss dies of cancer ” headline. Its irritating to me that even I didn’t think it through and immediately thought about the accident. That would be highly unlikely given the timeframe, exposure and lack of other evidence/cases.
The article didn’t mention any high risk behavior Yoshida might have engaged in, like smoking so I didn’t think it was an issue. Of course after quickly checking I found that wasn’t likely the case:
He recalled in the interview often passing out cigarettes to workers in a heavily used smoking room beside the bunker during the disaster and once joked: “We don’t have the US army fire trucks we need but at least we have got smokes.”
Its kinda ironic with current safety that the smoking room over time is probably the most proven dangerous part of a nuclear plant.
I have mixed feeling about the Oil Drum going inactive. On one hand I learned a lot from that site, but on the other hand there is way too much human hating going on in the comment section.
Personally, I avoided the place the same way I avoid hanging out in lunatic asylums. Sure, you can learn a lot from the inmates, but you’re never sure which reality they’re talking about.
Paul from the Beatles is coming to the rescue:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/music-icon-paul-mccartney-offers-free-show-tickets-211106435.html
For those who have never been to Québec city in the summer, go.
For those who want to validate that -40 degrees Farenheit is equal to -40 degrees Celsius, go in the winter !