Offshore Drilling

This article, though a few years old, gives a brief background over how oil is formed, where it is formed, and the importance of offshore drilling. The first point the articles makes is to deter from what once was believed that oil is formed from biodegrading dinosaurs to the fact oil comes from microscopic organisms at sea. Scientist estimate that each drop of sea water contain millions of life forms and after several millions of years these microorganisms get compacted deep into the sedimentary layers of rock beneath the sea. Once these organisms are compacted deep into the Earth's crust, they are cooked between 120 and 210 degrees
Fahrenheit to allow the formation of oil. The deeper into the Earth's crust, the higher the temperature increases …show more content…
This is what allows areas, such as The Gulf of
Mexico, important regions towards the production of oil.
Another important fact from the article is the explanation of how The Middle East has such a high amount of oil reserves. The article describes how millions of years ago The Middle East was in fact covered by an ocean and this is what leads to the oil formed deep within its sedimentary layers. Other regions of geological significance include the coast of South America and Africa. During the Cretaceous period when these two continents slowly pulled apart from each other, rivers poured many nutrients into the sea leading to the massive oil fields off the coast of Brazil.
The article argues by the year 2015 deepwater oil extraction could nearly double from 2010, due to inland reserves drying up and new technology allowing for more economical offshore production. Offshore drilling is extremely expensive and dangerous compared to onshore drilling and with all the new advances in hydraulic fracturing the inland reserves production have skyrocketed over the past five years or so making the predictions in the article likely not to
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