600 to nearly 5,000 feet, with penetrations into 

 the sea floor of up to 1 ,000 feet as limited by the 

 Geological Survey. These investigations were not 

 undertaken by the petroleum companies to search 

 for oil or gas accumulations but merely to obtain a 

 better understanding of the geology of these 

 remote and unknown areas. 



C. International Regulation 



There is no reason yet to expect that oil and gas 

 accumulations will not be present beneath the 

 waters overlying all of our continental margins. 

 This will be tested as technology advances. 



Recommendation : 



An international legal regime is needed that will 

 provide protection for the petroleum explorer in 

 waters seaward from the 200 meter isobath. A 

 regime that the panel believes to be satisfactory is 

 described in detail in the report of the Interna- 

 tional Panel. 



VI. FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS IN MARINE 

 PETROLEUM CAPABILITIES 



As mentioned earlier it is likely that future 

 advances in the technology of developing marine 

 oil and gas resources will continue to be evolu- 

 tionary, rather than revolutionary. Each innova- 

 tion in industry in the past has been based on data 

 and experience obtained by working in the sea and 

 by careful engineering studies. This pattern can be 

 expected to determine future developments. Not 

 only must these advances be workable and practi- 

 cal, but they must also be economical. The 

 petroleum industry has developed the present 

 technological capabilities and it is not expected 

 that future advances will depend in any significant 

 way on outside developments. All aspects of 

 marine petroleum operations are continually under 

 study and research within the petroleum industry. 



A. Future of Exploration 



The capability exists now to conduct geophysi- 

 cal surveys in water of any depth, anywhere in the 

 world. It is unlikely that any revolutionary new 

 technique will be developed in the near future. 

 Most effort will be devoted in improving efficiency 



and reliability of present tools, reducing the cost 

 of data collection, and improving the useful speed 

 under which surveys can be made. Specifically, in 

 seismic work additional new energy sources will be 

 developed, improved geophone systems will be 

 used and digital treatment particularly of single- 

 trace systems will be better developed. New and 

 more sensitive ship-borne gravimeters will be devel- 

 oped. Many companies are now studying integra- 

 tion and computer treatment of all data while 

 underway at sea. 



Similarly, shallow coring can now be done in 

 any water depth with existing drilling tools and 

 vessels. The effort here will be to continue to 

 increase mobility and decrease costs for such 

 sampling operations. Techniques to permit limited 

 hole re-entry without riser pipes between the 

 vessel and the sea floor have already been tested. 

 Several types of sea-floor, hard-rock coring devices 

 have been built, but none is yet completely 

 satisfactory; it is possible that such a practical 

 device will be developed in the future. Because of 

 their high cost and the inherently restricted area 

 that can be studied, submersibles are considered to 

 have no broad value in future oil and gas explora- 

 tion. Similarly, such tools as reconnaissance satel- 

 Utes are expected to have no important influence 

 on future marine petroleum developments. 



B. Future of Drilling 



As mentioned earlier, if the need existed and 

 costs were not a problem it would probably be 

 possible to drill an exploration or development 

 well in almost any water depth. The critical 

 technological problem is really one of doing the 

 task economically. Many of the floating drilling 

 vessels now working throughout the world are 

 capable of drilling in water depths up to 600 feet 

 and most of the newer ones are designed to drill in 

 at least 1,000 feet of water. Economical and 

 practical riser-pipes and riser-handling procedures 

 have yet to be tested. 



It is likely that there will be even a greater 

 variety of drilling vessels in the future, to meet a 

 greater variety of needs. It is also probable that 

 operations aboard the vessel, while drilling, will be 

 increasingly automated in order to improve safety, 

 increase operating rates, and reduce delay times. 

 Improved dynamic positioning systems and better 



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