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Zoltek's Take: : “130 deepwater projects produced oil, up from 17 a decade earlier.‿ “By 2015, Chevron expects deepwater wells to account for one-quarter of offshore oil production vs. 9% today.‿ When you think about it, that kind of growth for deepwater exploration is staggering. Everyday it becomes more and more obvious that the majority of oil remains buried thousands and thousands feet down in the ocean. At these depths, the conditions are very tough and require the use of materials that are superior to those used in the past. Among these superior materials is carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is non-corrosive, giving it a huge advantage in corrosive environments over other materials, such as steel. Even more important though, is the fact that carbon fiber can reach depths that are completely foreign to steel. At roughly 1,000 meters (3,200 feet), steel can no longer support its own weight, which results in the buckling and bending of steel. With this increase in the need to go deeper, comes the need to add new equipment. The current shortage of rigs alone is reason enough to need to build new rigs. This shortage, combined with new technologies, is leading to the design and construction of new deep sea equipment that features state-of-the-art-technology. A newly designed rig, taking advantage of the most recent technologies, could consume more than 1 million pounds of carbon fiber. Deep sea exploration will continue to be a robust market and Zoltek is positioning itself to be a major contributor to the technological advances in this market. In return, we expect that our business will grow from carbon fibers being imperative to the success of deep sea oil exploration.