Inventory of U. S. Companies Offshore Petroleum and Related Activity. An Assessment of Seafloor Mining, and Forecasts 1975-1985, 1985-2000.

摘要

Year-end 1974 inventories indicate a two-year increase of 231 to 466 mobile offshore rigs in the world fleet, 1548 to 2113 U. S.-owned service vessels, and 35 to 143 U. S.-owned deep-diving systems. A world rig fleet of 1000 to 1500 mobile operating units is anticipated by year 2000 to find and develop an estimated 500 to 720 billion barrels of offshore recoverable oil and the offshore gas resource. Rig and service vessel requirements are forecasted for the U. S. OCS areas of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific and Alaska. Related technologies such as exploration and development drilling, subsea production systems, seafloor pipelines and commercial diving are also appraised. No significant seafloor minerals production from ocean mining is anticipated during this century. (Author)