RE: Another Podcast with Larry Swets and Robert Price28 Mar 2026 15:10
Wow — another “ramptastic” news piece doing the rounds, courtesy of Larry and Robert. They must be exhausted with the volume of interviews… although, to be fair, the script doesn’t seem to change much.
The latest takeaway? Apparently oil production and sales within two years. Impressive — if not a touch optimistic. Particularly given that no discovery has been made yet, and even in a success case you’d still be looking at appraisal drilling, proving commerciality, permitting, environmental work, financing, and then building out infrastructure from scratch. Minor details, clearly. Perhaps the crystal ball is working overtime.
I've advised readers to pose AI a suitable question, here’s mine -
‘’Since the 1960s—the era of modern environmental impact reporting—has any company successfully moved an onshore project from its first exploratory drill to commercial sales within two years, specifically in a location requiring entirely new infrastructure?’’
The answer I got pretty much sums it up.
No credible example.
Since the 1960s, industry data shows:
Fastest historical average (discovery → production): ~5 years
Modern average: ~10–15 years
“Fast-track” today: ~2–3 years just to first oil, typically using existing infrastructure
Your criteria are much tighter:
first exploratory well → commercial sales
onshore
entirely new infrastructure
That combination is the blocker. You still need appraisal drilling, permits, financing, and to build roads, facilities, and export routes — which alone usually takes several years.
Yes, individual wells can produce in weeks, but only where infrastructure already exists — not comparable to a greenfield project.
Bottom line:
A sub-2-year timeline under those conditions would be an extreme outlier — effectively unheard of — and would almost certainly rely on loose definitions (e.g. prior appraisal, existing infrastructure, or calling test production “commercial sales”).