RE: Skylon/lasers/power satellites

>I don't seem to be at my brightest today.  I just reread what you said
>in the previous digest and could not find anything related to energy
>much less shaving a trillion dollars.

>Could you explain?

Sure, I've just talked about it so much here, I didn't repeat because I
thought I'd bore everyone more than usual.  Friends of mine invented
geosteering, which allows a drill string and the borehole it produces to
stay in a producing zone for miles, even as the zone moves up and down in
depth.  Conventionally, wells were drilled vertically, staying in the
producing zone for only the thickness of the zone (typically 3-100 feet).
This allows a single expensive offshore rig to drill only a few wells from
one spot to produce from a field, instead of moving the rig over and over
and over again.

Instead of many multi-billion dollar platforms drilling hundreds of wells,
there was one that would drill a score of wells...with the same production.
This greatly decreases the cost of developing a field. Back when it was
invented, the estimates were that this technique cut the cost of production
by about $2.50/barrel, on average.  Now, going back to the old way would
cost even more.  I used the conservative number, multiplied it by the
barrels of oil produced in the last 15 years, and got > 1 trillion dollars.

Dan M.