Thanks for an informative article on technologies about which we lay 'oil consumers' know little.
I guess I'm impressed, but my main reaction is horror. '49% of new offshore discoveries were in ultra-deepwater plays,' ..... 'octopus well pads'.... Plays indeed - gambling with spill disasters (e.g. BP gulf spill); flying in the face of global warming, about which you make no mention.

I'm trying to wean myself off oil. I have a different vision:
- use half as much energy for the same utility/ production,
- maximize electrification
- Make electricity generation 100% renewable (see WA study I co-authored)
http://www.greenswa.net.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/SEN2029study.pdf

Western Australia could have 100% renewable electricity with 10% of the current fuel costs for an investment of $50 billion. Electricity would cost about the same as replacing the fossil generation. I'd rather see this investment than four of your $12.6b floating LNG rigs, which will only make the world more reliant on fossil fuels. A path that will lead inevitably to a climate so destructive that it will destroy much of human civilization and greatly reduce the capacity of humanity to feed itself.

quote..<<And then we have subsea power grid plans,..which have been making progressive leaps since 2010 towards the advancement of electric grids..installed on the floor of the sea..to run processing systems at the site of underwater wells.>>..

ohdear more poles/wires?
[infrastructure spending ....us mug consumers will be paying for?

quote..<<We are particularly interested..in a new subsea rotating device that promises to enhance dual-gradient drilling (DGD). This is a system being developed by Chevron, which is hoping to deploy the system is the Gulf of Mexico later this year...

...What the DGD system will do is render the thousands of feet of mud that is bearing down on the wellbore … well … weightless.>>..

counter intuitive.but no doudt clever

other point is underwater 'processing'
out of sight out of mind?

Roses1
do you have a source and more infor on this:

"Western Australia could have 100% renewable electricity with 10% of the current fuel costs for an investment of $50 billion. Electricity would cost about the same as replacing the fossil generation. I'd rather see this investment than four of your $12.6b floating LNG rigs, which will only make the world more reliant on fossil fuels"

My information suggests that the increaisng use of renewables in WA is already pushing up fuel costs significantly without much noticeable benefit in terms of GHG emissions.

Several of these sources do not have high energy returns.