Shell Extends of Gulf of Mexico Oilfield With Water Injection

[phantom power]

(Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, said it extended the life of its Gulf of Mexico oilfield by 10 years after injecting water to push out displaced crude.

Water is being pumped from the Ursa rig in the Ursa-Mars basin, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the U.S. coast, to flush out oil from the Ursa and Princess fields, Shell said in a statement posted on its Web site today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=awmdEscoiuqw&refer=energy

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. Still gonna get quakes

and significant environmental damage (let me rephrase that: "catastrophic environemntal adjustments"). I'm no fluid scientist, but I'd wager that emptied space filled with water is not going to behave the same as space filled with oil.

[phantom power]

2. I'm not worried about seismic anything. I'm worried about fractional flow curves.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2393

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. Exactly what the Saudi's have had to do to keep up production.

This has absolutely nothing to do with "extending the life" of the oil field. It means the pressure is down so low, they need to inject water to get it out.