Cramped on Land, Big Oil Bets at Sea
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:54 am
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/ar ... ets-at-sea
Read more at the link aboveCramped on Land, Big Oil Bets at Sea
by Ben Casselman and Guy Chazan
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
provided by
Chevron
Chevron is leasing the Clear Leader, which floats in 4,300 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, to drill for oil through nearly five miles of rock.
Big Oil never wanted to be here, in 4,300 feet of water far out in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling through nearly five miles of rock.
It is an expensive way to look for oil. Chevron Corp. is paying nearly $500,000 a day to the owner of the Clear Leader, one of the world's newest and most powerful drilling rigs. The new well off the coast of Louisiana will connect to a huge platform floating nearby, which cost Chevron $650 million to build. The first phase of this oil-exploration project took more than 10 years and cost $2.7 billion -- with no guarantee it would pay off.
