Originally Posted by
slimslob
It is not just the cost. There is also the lead time. Most major oil companies do not do their own drilling. That is done by independent drilling companies who often do not own the drilling rigs but have to rent them from third parties and they are not setting there waiting for someone wanting to use them. Most of them are already in use or need to be brought in from other locations hundreds or even thousands of miles away, often taking days to arrive. There is also the need to get electrical power in the the drilling site. Overall it can take a couple of months just to start drilling. One study found the world's largest oil and gas fields averaged 5.5 years from discovery to first production and took 17 years of production on average to reach peak output.
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