BP's 2009 Tiber Prospect Oil Discovery in the Gulf of Mexico
This paper examines British Petroleum's September 2009 announcement of a major oil discovery at the Tiber Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, located approximately 250 miles from Houston, Texas, at a record-breaking depth of 35,055 feet. The paper reviews estimates that the reservoir may hold up to three billion barrels of oil, discusses the geological significance of the Lower Tertiary/Paleogene formation, and considers the economic implications for U.S. energy imports and consumer fuel costs. It also addresses the high drilling costs involved, the discovery's competitive advantages over foreign oil production, and a related Lower Tertiary site known as the Chinook and Cascade Prospects.
- Introduction: BP's Tiber Prospect Announcement: BP announces massive Gulf of Mexico oil find
- Scale and Geological Significance: Record depth and Lower Tertiary geology explained
- Economic and Industry Implications: Cost advantages over foreign oil drilling
- Risks, Costs, and Future Prospects: Drilling risks and additional exploration sites
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses timely, specific sourcing — press releases, news reporting, and industry books — to ground claims in verifiable evidence rather than generalization.
- Balances optimism about the discovery's potential with a measured acknowledgment of financial risks and geological uncertainty.
- Contextualizes the find within the broader U.S. energy landscape, connecting well-depth statistics and barrel estimates to real-world implications for consumers and foreign oil dependence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective integration of multiple source types — corporate press releases, financial journalism, and specialized geology texts — to build a layered, evidence-based argument. Each claim is attributed, showing the writer's ability to synthesize rather than simply report.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with the announcement and technical details of the discovery, moves into its geological and quantitative significance, then pivots to economic consequences and competitive advantages over foreign drilling. It closes by acknowledging drilling risks and the potential for additional Lower Tertiary exploration, ending on a cautiously optimistic note about U.S. energy independence. Four logical sections cover roughly equal argumentative ground in a compact analytical essay format.
Introduction: BP's Tiber Prospect Announcement
According to a press release issued on September 2, 2009, British Petroleum (BP) announced the discovery of a massive oil deposit at its Tiber Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. This well, located in the Keathley Canyon block 102 approximately 250 miles from Houston, Texas, sits some 4,132 feet below the surface, with the well itself reaching a depth of 35,055 feet — "making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry" ("BP Announces," 2009). Exactly how much oil is held in this reservoir is not currently known, but BP officials estimate it contains approximately three billion barrels.
If this estimate proves accurate, it could make a substantial difference in the volume of oil imported by the United States, thereby lowering not only the cost of oil domestically but also the fuel costs borne by the average American consumer.
Scale and Geological Significance
Edward Gismatullin, a reporter for Bloomberg News, writes that the discovery has boosted oil output in the Gulf of Mexico region "by 50% to 600,000 barrels . . . equivalent a day after 2020," and is roughly equal to a year's output from Saudi Arabia, the largest member of OPEC, and "close to matching the UK's entire proven reserves" (2009). Regarding the nature of the oil deposit itself, BP spokesman Robert Wine described the discovery as "a whole new geological play" — a reference to the oil being held in what the industry calls the Lower Tertiary, or Paleogene, a 65-million-year-old geological formation.
This formation lies almost as deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico as Mount Everest is high and was previously considered unreachable by petroleum geologists (Gismatullin, 2009). The discovery therefore represents not only a quantitative milestone but a qualitative breakthrough in deep-water drilling capability.
References
"BP Announces Giant Oil Discovery in the Gulf of Mexico." (2 September 2009). BP. Accessed November 17, 2009 from
Gismatullin, Edward. (2 September 2009). "BP Makes Giant Oil Discovery in Gulf of Mexico." Bloomberg.com. Accessed November 17, 2009 from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adF31W9._rik.
Gold, Russell. (3 September 2009). "BP's Big Oil Find Cements Gulf's Revival." The Wall Street Journal Online. Accessed November 17, 2009 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125189057895179241.html.
Johnson, Howard M. (2005). The Gulf of Mexico and Its Oil Potential. New York: Bloomberg Publications.
Lambert, Michael C. (2006). The Geology of the Gulf of Mexico. New York: G.K. Hall.
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