• US taps into fuckton of oil, expects to increase production by 20-40%
    116 replies, posted
[quote]A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude. Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now. This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers. "That's a significant contribution to energy security," says Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse. Oil engineers are applying what critics say is an environmentally questionable method developed in recent years to tap natural gas trapped in underground shale. They drill down and horizontally into the rock, then pump water, sand and chemicals into the hole to crack the shale and allow gas to flow up. Because oil molecules are sticky and larger than gas molecules, engineers thought the process wouldn't work to squeeze oil out fast enough to make it economical. But drillers learned how to increase the number of cracks in the rock and use different chemicals to free up oil at low cost. "We've completely transformed the natural gas industry, and I wouldn't be surprised if we transform the oil business in the next few years too," says Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, which is using the technique. Petroleum engineers first used the method in 2007 to unlock oil from a 25,000-square-mile formation under North Dakota and Montana known as the Bakken. Production there rose 50 percent in just the past year, to 458,000 barrels a day, according to Bentek Energy, an energy analysis firm. It was first thought that the Bakken was unique. Then drillers tapped oil in a shale formation under South Texas called the Eagle Ford. Drilling permits in the region grew 11-fold last year. Now newer fields are showing promise, including the Niobrara, which stretches under Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas; the Leonard, in New Mexico and Texas; and the Monterey, in California. "It's only been fleshed out over the last 12 months just how consequential this can be," says Mark Papa, chief executive of EOG Resources, the company that first used horizontal drilling to tap shale oil. "And there will be several additional plays that will come about in the next 12 to 18 months. We're not done yet." Environmentalists fear that fluids or wastewater from the process, called hydraulic fracturing, could pollute drinking water supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency is now studying its safety in shale drilling. The agency studied use of the process in shallower drilling operations in 2004 and found that it was safe. In the Bakken formation, production is rising so fast there is no space in pipelines to bring the oil to market. Instead, it is being transported to refineries by rail and truck. Drilling companies have had to erect camps to house workers. Unemployment in North Dakota has fallen to the lowest level in the nation, 3.8 percent — less than half the national rate of 9 percent. The influx of mostly male workers to the region has left local men lamenting a lack of women. Convenience stores are struggling to keep shelves stocked with food. The Bakken and the Eagle Ford are each expected to ultimately produce 4 billion barrels of oil. That would make them the fifth- and sixth-biggest oil fields ever discovered in the United States. The top four are Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, Spraberry Trend in West Texas, the East Texas Oilfield and the Kuparuk Field in Alaska. The fields are attracting billions of dollars of investment from foreign oil giants like Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Norway's Statoil, and also from the smaller U.S. drillers who developed the new techniques like Chesapeake, EOG Resources and Occidental Petroleum. Last month China's state-owned oil company CNOOC agreed to pay Chesapeake $570 million for a one-third stake in a drilling project in the Niobrara. This followed a $1 billion deal in October between the two companies on a project in the Eagle Ford. With oil prices high and natural-gas prices low, profit margins from producing oil from shale are much higher than for gas. Also, drilling for shale oil is not dependent on high oil prices. Papa says this oil is cheaper to tap than the oil in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico or in Canada's oil sands. The country's shale oil resources aren't nearly as big as the country's shale gas resources. Drillers have unlocked decades' worth of natural gas, an abundance of supply that may keep prices low for years. U.S. shale oil on the other hand will only supply one to two percent of world consumption by 2015, not nearly enough to affect prices. Still, a surge in production last year from the Bakken helped U.S. oil production grow for the second year in a row, after 23 years of decline. This during a year when drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation's biggest oil-producing region, was halted after the BP oil spill. U.S. oil production climbed steadily through most of the last century and reached a peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970. The decline since was slowed by new production in Alaska in the 1980s and in the Gulf of Mexico more recently. But by 2008, production had fallen to 5 million barrels per day. Within five years, analysts and executives predict, [b]the newly unlocked fields are expected to produce 1 million to 2 million barrels of oil per day, enough to boost U.S. production 20 percent to 40 percent. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates production will grow a more modest 500,000 barrels per day.[/b] [b]By 2020, oil imports could be slashed by as much as 60 percent[/b], according to Credit Suisse's Morse, who is counting on Gulf oil production to rise and on U.S. gasoline demand to fall. At today's oil prices of roughly $90 per barrel, slashing imports that much would save the U.S. $175 billion a year. Last year, when oil averaged $78 per barrel, the U.S. sent $260 billion overseas for crude, accounting for nearly half the country's $500 billion trade deficit. "We have redefined how to look for oil and gas," says Rehan Rashid, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "The implications are major for the nation."[/quote] [url]http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j19p_VRpnsy7NiY3OyVDiaNeQQFw?docId=6de288f3cefa4d77bdabdc9f66560410[/url] Heard about this very recently.
:fsmug: Who needs Saudi Arabia for Oil?
While its nice that we now have more of a domestic output, the need to move away from fossil fuels is ever present.
[B]AND THERE GOES THE ENVIRONMENT[/B] Yeah seriously this is like Greenpeace's Nightmare
My brother said some rancher in North Dakota sold his ranch to an Oil company for something like 200 [i]billion[/i] dollars. Yes, Billion.
Who the fuck lives in North Dakota besides repentant Canadians.
[QUOTE=OvB;27977904]My brother said some rancher in North Dakota sold his ranch to an Oil company for something like 200 [i]billion[/i] dollars. Yes, Billion.[/QUOTE] Excuse me while I go and buy every ranch currently available.
BP oil just came in it's pants.
Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.
Wouldn't surprise me if this has been known for a long long time, but kept under wraps. It's more profitable for oil companies if we're in a constant state of "oil crisis".
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] wat
[QUOTE=demoguy08;27977971]Wouldn't surprise me if this has been known for a long long time, but kept under wraps. It's more profitable for oil companies if we're in a constant state of "oil crisis".[/QUOTE] [i]A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States[/i] They "couldn't reach it". I'm pretty sure they knew about it for awhile.
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] Watch, Glaber will some how try to threadshit this.
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] Why? His state of the union a couple weeks back was in favor of bringing jobs back to America.
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] What? He probably came in his pants upon hearing this.
I don't doubt that if this becomes to be false and there aren't as many barrels of oil expected we will just use less oil, look at what happened in past years.
I'm so conflicted when stuff like this happens. On one hand, great : we're not out of oil yet, no imminent global catastrophe to deal with, more time to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. On the other, bad : the oil companies are just going to get richer and richer, stifling research into nuclear reactors, alternative energy sources etc. until it's all too late. I'll go with good for now, it's nice to know that the western world isn't entirely dependent on Saudi Arabia for its oil.
Talk about a slick discovery!
[QUOTE=toaster468;27978041]Why? His state of the union a couple weeks back was in favor of bringing jobs back to America.[/QUOTE] If he was really in favor, he would lift that moratorium in the gulf and allow for drilling in Anwar.
This could be a [i]sticky[/i] situation for the middle east! [editline]10th February 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Glaber;27978196]If he was really in favor, he would lift that moratorium in the gulf and allow for drilling in Anwar.[/QUOTE] Maybe he is doing it to have a cushion to fall back on if we ever run out of oil? I don't really study these things.
[quote]By 2020, oil imports could be slashed by as much as 60 percent, according to Credit Suisse's Morse, who is [b]counting on[/b] Gulf oil production to rise and on [b]U.S. gasoline demand to fall[/b].[/quote] Haha, as if!
Nice try, but Hubbard's peak has already occurred.
[QUOTE=R3mix;27977876]:fsmug: Who needs Saudi Arabia for Oil?[/QUOTE] the US consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day. Do you know what that means? they will always have to relay on other nations to give them oil. If saudia arabia stopped importing oil to the US, the US's economy would collapse.
[quote]By 2020, oil imports could be slashed by as much as 60 percent[/quote] Welp, sucks to be OPEC!.
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] He already said he was in favor of relying less on foreign oil. But I forgot that you only listen to his words through a FOX filter.
[QUOTE=OvB;27977904]My brother said some rancher in North Dakota sold his ranch to an Oil company for something like 200 [i]billion[/i] dollars. Yes, Billion.[/QUOTE] North Dakota has the highest number of millionaires per capita due to all the oil and low population.
[QUOTE=Glaber;27977954]Watch, Obama will some how try to block this.[/QUOTE] why would he.. the whole point we're still in Iraq is so that the government doesn't collapse so we can keep our supply of oil.. why wouldn't he want to end the war by getting domestic oil sources?
[QUOTE=Miskav;27977953]BP oil just came in it's pants.[/QUOTE] Good thing they can keep the mess in their pants so i't dosn't ruin the american coasts.
God dammit
[QUOTE=Spooefy;27978361]the US consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day. Do you know what that means? they will always have to relay on other nations to give them oil. If saudia arabia stopped importing oil to the US, the US's economy would collapse.[/QUOTE] Actually Canada supplies more oil to the US than Saudi Arabia. And the leading source of oil to the US is the US itself. lmbo
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