Brazil Builds $127 Billion "Offshore City" to Harvest Oil in the Deep Sea

Want to get a feel for how crazy the post-peak oil fossil fuels industry is getting? Here's as good an example as any: Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras is about to embark on an  unprecedented oil-gathering mission. 

It's about to attempt to extract 30 billion barrels of oil from reserves that are locked in deepwater sub-salt fields at least 60 miles off the coast and up to five miles underwater. In order to get at the incredibly hard-to-get oily good stuff, Brazil is spending an estimated $226 billion -- and $127 billion will be spent on exploration and production alone.

The product of that venture is already taking shape: a veritable floating "offshore city" has sprung up over 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast of Brazil, and it will lead the effort to drill into the deep sea sub-salt.

One oil worker told GE's Txchnologist all about these 'floating frontier towns': ""It is really impressive what is out here, 100km off the shore," said Willem Van Beek, a Dutch "mud engineer" who drills the wells, from an oil platform at Espiríto Santos Basin recently. "It's like a complete offshore city. You see thousands and thousands of lights." More >>>