Pushing the boundaries

Offshore exploration and production (E&P) began in the early 1900s. Since then, the definition of deep water has extended as technology has advanced. Until 1998, it was considered to be anything off the continental shelf, at depths greater than 200 metres. Then it moved to 300 metres, but was quickly extended to 500 metres, Nigel Ash writes

NOW, PRODUCTION is being achieved from almost 2,000 metres of water and companies such as Brazil's Petrobras, with its Procap-3000 technology programme, envisage the exploitation of ultra-deep fields at 3,000 metres. Almost 30% of Petrobras' proven reserves are in water depths beyond 1,000 metres and 46% in depths ranging from 400 metres to 1,000 metres. Brazil along with the west coast of Africa and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) remain the key areas for deep-water exploration and, according to analysts Douglas-Westwood, will attract some 93% of the $58bn of deep-water exploration investment in the five years to 2007 - twice the amount invested in the previous five years. However, prospects in wa