Chevron announces new oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico

Chevron with two partners announced a potentially significant discovery at the Jack 2 well in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Located 5.3 miles deep the field is estimated to contain 15,000,000,000 barrels of crude.  A 50% increase in current US Oil Reserves. 

At our current consumption rates that would be a 5 year supply if we stopped all oil imports.  Couple that with the 1.2 trillion barrels locked up in oil shale and we have a 166 year supply.

So why is oil $68 a barrel?

This is kind of a humorous aside.  While looking up some information on US Oil Reserves I came across the following on Wikipedia:

United States proven oil reserves declined to a little more than 21 gigabarrels by the end of 2004 according to the Energy Information Administration, a 46% decline from the 39 gigabarrels it had in 1970 when the huge Alaska North Slope ('ANS') reserves were booked. Since there have been millions of oil wells drilled in the US and there is nowhere left for an elephant the size of ANS to remain hidden, it appears that US oil reserves are on a permanent downward slide. As oil fields get closer to the end of production, estimates of what is left become more accurate. Consequently, US oil reserve numbers are very accurate compared those of other countries.

tags: Oil, Chevron, Petroleum, Gas, Gulf+of+Mexico