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July 1, 1998 E-mail: geotimes@agiweb.org

Oil Fields and Icebergs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — What does it take to build an oil drilling platform in frigid northern waters populated with icebergs? Newfoundland writer Geoff Meeker describes such a challenge in the July issue of Geotimes. The Hibernia Management and Development Company, Meeker writes, worked for 30 years to characterize the Hibernia oil field and bring it to production. The field lies 315 kilometers east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, in the North Atlantic. The Hibernia platform — owned by Mobil Oil Canada, Chevron Canada Resources, Petro-Canada, Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation, Murphy Oil Corp., and Norsk Hydro — sits in Iceberg Alley, an area of the North Atlantic that has claimed many ships, including the Titanic. The platform is designed to fend off and, if necessary, absorb the impact of approaching icebergs. The risks of drilling oil in the Hibernia field are great, but so are the potential gains. When Hibernia achieved "first oil" in 1997, it produced 56,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The field is expected to achieve peak production levels of 150,000 bopd within a year, Meeker writes.

In "The Sculptor and the Geologist: Turning Stone into Art," sculptor William T. Laprade, also an engineering geologist, offers an artist's perspective on stone and how different geological properties can become the sculptor's tools. "To the geologist, mountains are a constant source of unanswered questions," he writes. "To the sculptor, rocks are both a creative inspiration and a practical source of material." His story in Geotimes offers detailed descriptions of how he uses stones to create works of art. Color illustrations of his sculptors and those created by other sculptor-geologists are included.

And while oil is being drilled in Hibernia, Walter Youngquist, an emeritus member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, issues a warning about depleting oil resources. "When the future of oil is discussed, the common question asked is: How long will oil last? This is the wrong question," Youngquist writes. "The critical date is when the peak of oil production is reached and the world's demands can no longer be supplied." Youngquist discusses alternative energy sources and the urgency of exploiting them in time to supply energy after the world reaches its peak oil production. His article provides a sobering perspective on the world's oil production.

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