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Zoltek's Take: We view deep sea oil exploration as a very large opportunity. Steel has its limits in many applications and that is particularly true in deep sea oil exploration. At roughly 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) steel renders itself useless by buckling, bending, and breaking. Carbon fiber, however, allows oil exploration to continue far past 1,000 meters. In fact, tests have been done in waters as deep as 3,000+ meters (10,000+ feet). Aker Subsea AS is clearly having success with their subsea umbilicals that feature their patented carbon fiber rod technology and we expect this success to continue as the vast majority of remaining oil in the world is located in deep sea areas. Zoltek’s carbon fiber is used in the state of the art umbilicals made by Aker Subsea AS. As such, we look forward to continuing to help the deep sea oil exploration industry reach technological breakthroughs.
