Chevron spending $1 million a day drilling one well

ABOARD THE DISCOVERER INSPIRATION — Right now, on the outer edge of the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron Corp. is making a very big bet that, nearly six miles below where it has parked a new high-tech drillship, it will find enough oil to make this $1 million-per-day wager pay off.

Years of research and planning have brought the oil giant to this point, and to this solitary location about 190 miles southeast of Houston, where water depths reach nearly 7,000 feet and a vast, uninterrupted expanse of sea is the only view.

Now, the only thing left to do is wait, as a drill bit far below inches closer to a target that may or may not exist.

“You can do all the planning you want,” said Tom Jones, drilling superintendent of Chevron's Moccasin prospect, aboard the new rig called the Discoverer Inspiration. “But there's only one way to find out, and that's to drill a well.”

The fact that one of the world's biggest oil companies has found itself here underscores how difficult the global hunt for oil has become. It also helps explain why the Gulf of Mexico has recently taken on greater importance in that search.