As you may know, an underwater robot named “Argo” was responsible for discovering the wreckage of the Titanic back in 1985, at a depth of nearly 12,000 feet.
Since then, underwater robots have come a long way and found a number of profitable uses — not the least of which is finding deep-sea oil.
Modern society consumes tremendous amounts of oil…
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumes over 18 million barrels of oil per day. In 2012, the world consumed nearly 90 million barrels of oil per day. That’s a record.
But here’s the thing: Despite recent oil discoveries in the Bakken region of the United States, the demand for oil is insatiable.
That’s because many of the on-land, traditional oil wells are running dry.
“There’s no where left to drill,” says oilman T. Boone Pickens.
For this reason, more Big Oil titans — companies like Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP, and Petrobras — are venturing into the ocean in search of oil riches.
And make no mistake; that’s exactly where the oil is…
The U.S. government estimates that the Gulf of Mexico holds somewhere around 70 billion barrels of oil.
Combined with the entire Outer Continental Shelf, there’s thought to be more than 85 billion barrels of undiscovered crude off the coast of the United States — more than enough oil to last the United States for a decade.
By 2020, 40% of U.S. oil could come from offshore, according to analysts at IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), more than half the oil discovered since 2000 is in deep water.
In fact, Petrobras discovered a staggering eight-billion-barrel oil field off the coast of Brazil. That’s the size of the entire Bakken oil field located in the United States!
What’s incredible is Petrobras then found another oil field off Brazil that has an estimated 40 billion barrels of oil.
This is the biggest oil field discovery in over 30 years — onshore or off.
Bottom line: There are massive quantities of oil under the ocean.
It truly is oil’s final frontier.
The only problem is drilling on the bottom of the sea has proven difficult…
Deep and Dangerous
The seabed is a dangerous place. The pressure is strong enough to crush a dump truck. And the farther down you go, the less traditional drilling methods work.
This is where underwater robots, called Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), come in…
ROVs are unoccupied, highly maneuverable, and operated by a person aboard a vessel.
They are loaded with the most sophisticated technology on the planet: cutting-edge video transmission equipment, still cameras, acoustic positioning systems, sonars, and magnetometers.
In addition, ROVs have robotic arms that can lift over five tons. They have multiple “manipulators” and “grabbers” capable of performing numerous deep-sea tasks.
Most importantly, ROVs can go places humans can’t. And they can do everything a human can do… and more.
Going Down
Needless to say, the intersection between deepwater drilling and ROVs equals profits.
According to the Houston Business Journal:
Between 2013 and 2017, companies are expected to increase their spending on working class ROVs by about 80%.
Total expenditure on ROVs is expected to be $9.7 billion between 2013 and 2017.
Douglas-Westwood, an oil industry research group, reports:
As operators look to increase the profitability and efficiency of their subsea developments, there will be a surge of demand for exceptionally powerful work-class ROVs, able to perform the support work needed in an industry where new technologies and processes are vital.
You’d better act fast… there are already companies with massive fleets of underwater robots, and they’re climbing steadily.
For your profits,
Christian DeHaemer
Check us out on YouTube!Christian is the founder of Bull and Bust Report and an editor at Energy and Capital. For more on Christian, see his editor’s page.
