Oil and Innovation

[guest]

Too much of one, not enough of the other: what BP and other oil companies should be doing—and should have done

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[jasikazensis]

Traditionally companies first extract heavy oil and then process it to produce a lighter, more valuable product. Much of the oil has to be left in the ground. To extract more oil with greater ease, and cut the usual number of processing steps, we have developed a way to lighten the oil while it is still in the ground, known as our in situ upgrading process,Once the oil spill began and none of the systems to stop it worked, BP should have moved immediately to gain access to multiple technology solutions, going beyond any BP internal technologies to find inventions, equipment, and processes that might help. There is no question in my mind that this search for fresh ideas and technology would have quickly led to a handful of ways to stop the oil that had a real chance of working.