Brazil's state-controlled oil company recently announced that it can "sink pipes and pump crude from Tupi, overcoming increasing heat and pressure at greater depths," but our resident petroleum expert, Shari Dunn-Norman ,says she's not so sure.

Gabrielli's schedule for tapping Tupi may be too ambitious because production technology tends to lag behind exploration technology by 5 to 10 years, said Shari Dunn-Norman, who teaches petroleum engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.

``Production always lags behind our ability to find deposits in the deep water,'' said Dunn-Norman, a former Atlantic Richfield Co. engineer. ``They're being very aggressive.''

Via Bloomberg.