New “old” story in WSJ today, highlighting oil companies’ efforts to score big finds in deep water.

The article once again recounts BP’s GIANT find in the Gulf from last fall. Never mind the fact that of those 3 billion barrels, only 1 billion are recoverable and that, ultimately, 1 billion barrels, while they may be worth $80 billion, is only enough oil to last the U.S. about seven weeks.

The article gets better, however. I leave you with this, courtesy of the WSJ:

The discoveries come as many of the giant oil fields of the past century are beginning to dry up, and as some experts are warning that global oil production could soon reach a peak and begin to decline. The new deepwater fields represent a huge and largely untapped source of oil, which could help ease fears that the world won’t be able to meet demand for energy, which is expected to grow rapidly in coming years.

For oil companies, the discoveries mean something more: After a decade of retreat, large Western energy companies are taking back the lead in the quest to find oil. “A lot of people can get the very easy oil,” says George Kirkland, Chevron’s vice chairman. “There’s just not a lot of it left.”

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