Biggest Find in Decades Becomes $39 Billion Cautionary Tale
By Nariman Gizitdinov - Nov 17, 2011 4:01 AM ET
Full story, excerpts below. Best read here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/biggest-oil-find-in-decades-becomes-39-billion-cautionary-tale.html
After 11 years and $39 billion of investment, Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and their partners have yet to sell a drop of oil from what was touted as the world’s biggest discovery in four decades.
Kashagan, which may hold enough oil to supply the world for six months, has become a cautionary tale for oil companies worldwide as they spend an estimated $20 trillion through 2035 finding supplies in ever more difficult places. Expenses mounted as engineers underestimated the complexity of drilling under a region of the Caspian Sea that’s frozen almost half the year.
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