Ireland finds oil!

Admiral Huddy · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:37

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-19889948

Sorry, I read this story and Father Dougal McGuire just popped in there. "Do you think it's just Guinness Ted"

"Ireland is on the verge of securing revenue from oil that could run into billions of pounds."

I've always wondered what they replace the voids with and the geological consequences..

arknor · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:39

dont they pump water in or the pressure wouldnt be enough to get the oil out?

Firestar_3x · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:41

Cool, look forward to visiting.

Reaper 392 · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:42

so, judging by petrol prices today, they found at least ten litres

IrishChr1s · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:44

Reaper 392 said:
so, judging by petrol prices today, they found at least ten litres

Could be worse, last night had to refill my fryer to make chips, bought 2 litres and i wasnt enough, went back and had to buy another 2 litres and it did the job,

Cost £10.80 for 4 litres of cooking oil! Thats more expensive than petrol!

The Funktopus · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:47

Say "Ireland finds oil" in their particular accent, then wonder to yourself, "All what?"

digisatman · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:49

280m barrells is only 3-4 days of global consumption so not a huge find in the grand scheme of things?

Admiral Huddy · 10 Oct 2012 at 16:52

digisatman said:
280m barrells is only 3-4 days of global consumption so not a huge find in the grand scheme of things?

If that's the case, then that's quite scary when you put it like that.

SB118 · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:00

IrishChr1s said:
Could be worse, last night had to refill my fryer to make chips, bought 2 litres and i wasnt enough, went back and had to buy another 2 litres and it did the job,

Cost £10.80 for 4 litres of cooking oil! Thats more expensive than petrol!

Where the hell are you buying your oil? :eek:

Vanilla · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:02

Whale oil beef hooked!

scorza · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:02

digisatman said:
280m barrells is only 3-4 days of global consumption so not a huge find in the grand scheme of things?

Will make a fair bit of difference to Irish finances though.

Was hearing on the radio about yesterday about the astounding performance of Norway's sovereign pension fund i.e. North Sea oil money that they didn't ***** up the wall needlessly cutting the deficit like we did in the '80s and '90s.

[FnG]magnolia · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:04

If only they'd been equally adept at finding potatoes.

cork-spotters · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:05

Woo! Once it doesn't go like Corrib Gas it should be great for this region. What I don't get is that this was announced in the Irish media months ago. BBC a bit slow on the uptake?

Duff-Man · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:07

Admiral Huddy said:
I've always wondered what they replace the voids with and the geological consequences..

Water is pumped in at high-pressure to displace the oil. Once the oil is extracted, water occupies the space. Don't think of oil as a "giant underground reservoir" though - it's all contained within a porous medium (kind of like a sponge soaked in oil)

It's interesting though: Oil and water are immiscible (...don't mix), and have different densities and viscosities. Therefore the oil is not displaced in a simple fashion (like a smooth plume). Instead the injected water forms viscous fingers which travel through the oil. The fingers may branch and bifucate, but they do not break. The injected water forms a continuous but highly complex pathway through the oil.

It is important that these fingers are not allowed to reach the extraction well. If / when this happens, the extraction well will remove only water - no oil. The water will form a direct pathway from the injection point to the extraction point, and the oil well is pretty much useless. Estimating the propagation of the fingers can be a fairly complex task.

WingZero30 · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:11

Firestar_3x said:
Cool, look forward to visiting.

Hmmm. I wonder what the purpose of this visit could be?

steve45 · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:18

Duff-Man said:
It's interesting though: Oil and water are immiscible (...don't mix), and have different densities and viscosities. Therefore the oil is not displaced in a simple fashion (like a smooth plume). Instead the injected water forms viscous fingers which travel through the oil. The fingers may branch and bifucate, but they do not break. The injected water forms a continuous but highly complex pathway through the oil.

It is important that these fingers are not allowed to reach the extraction well. If / when this happens, the extraction well will remove only water - no oil. The water will form a direct pathway from the injection point to the extraction point, and the oil well is pretty much useless. Estimating the propagation of the fingers can be a fairly complex task.

I always knew high pressure water was used, but thats the first time i've heard about the process in detail, thats quite fascinating

Cosimo · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:20

They'll have to be sure that Ireland won't sink when they start extracting.

anything I don't mind · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:24

Sell it to the chinese!

Antar Bolaeisk · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:28

cork-spotters said:
Woo! Once it doesn't go like Corrib Gas it should be great for this region. What I don't get is that this was announced in the Irish media months ago. BBC a bit slow on the uptake?

Do we get all that much from it? I thought there was some horrible deal made years ago that basically surrendered a large amount of the value (maybe I'm thinking of something else).

Destination · 10 Oct 2012 at 17:29

Well given the tax income, and the tax offset, and the swindling that is rife within the nepotistic political system within the south, I bet bertie and his ilk get rich and the country see F all squared of this income.