How much revenue can a deepwater oil well generate?
A good deepwater oil well can produce 20,000 to 50,000 bbl of oil per day. The BP Macondo well was simply a hole in the ground and was free flowing about 25,000bbl per day. Assuming the price of $100 per bbl, that comes to $2 to $5 million dollars revenue per day! How many companies can make $2 to $5 million dollar revenue per day?
Therefore, if a deepwater well does strike oil, the cost for the well can be recovered pretty quickly. Deepwater wells can be expected to continue to produce for around 20 years, although the production rate would drop as the well ages.
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