“I can’t make this stuff up” should be trademarked by Million Dollar Way.
Bills are moving through the California legislature to halt fracking in the state until it is studied to the legislator’s satisfaction. Reported by the AP in Lawmakers advance bill to halt oil fracking.
Fracking has been used in California for 60 years. Six decades.
Contrary to what I have been saying, it actually is possible for us to hit a peak in oil production followed by a dramatic drop in output leading to a perpetual decline in the available energy we have.
How?
We as a society can decide that’s what we want. Or our politicians can choose that for us. Or regulators can impose their choice.
I’ve noticed a number of articles in recent months that make that point. Consider the following.
Check out the importance of the U.S. constitution in the efforts to ban hydraulic fracturing within the city limits of Las Vegas, NM. That’s a small town in New Mexico, not the gambling capital.
Here’s the money quote in an article in the Albuquerque Journal, Group Seeks To Prohibit Fracking from Ms. Hern, a board member of the group which helped write a law which would have banned fracking inside city limits:
Asked about the constitutionality of the ordinance, Hern said, “What people don’t understand is sometimes we have to step outside the boundaries of the Constitution to get things done. Laws are made to protect corporations and we need laws that protect Mother Earth – earth, air and water.”
Background
Marathon Oil has a great visual showing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. In contrast, I also found a joke of an illustration.
Here’s the good stuff:
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VY34PQUiwOQ#t=256s
This video includes above ground pictures to help tell the story. Also describes recovery steps when the well is taken out of production. It has more background than just the drilling, well lining, and fracking.
From the description for the video:
Safe, cost-effective refinements in hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking), horizontal drilling and other innovations now allow for the production of oil and natural gas from tight shale formations that previously were inaccessible. This animated video introduces you to the proven techniques used to extract resources from these shale formations in a safe, environmentally responsible manner.
And now for a contrast….
Here’s another superb primer on hydraulic fracturing: Big Screen Energy: A Fracking Film Festival.
The graphics are great. In particular, there are three superb illustrations of the depths involved in drilling and the multiple layers of protective steel and cement. Check out the thousands of feet of rock between the water table and the horizontal run.
The brochure is from the EnergyFromShale.org website. I browsed the site and found this great video of the drilling and fracking process:
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YemKzEPugpk&feature=player_embedded
Here are a few of the tidbits I learned from the brochure:
How much steel and cement is used in each well?
Let’s put the water needs of fracking a well into perspective.
The water needed to drill the wells in North Dakota is equal to two minutes of each day’s volume of water in the Missouri river flowing past Bismarck.
My source is a Bismarck Tribune from two years ago: Hoeven, delegation upset with corps’ plans for Lake Sakakawea.
“The amounts of water at issue are miniscule,” the delegation said in the letter to Darcy. “High-end estimates are that full development of the state’s oil fields would require 1,800 new wells drilled per year, at a total of 4 million gallons of water each.”This totals about 60 acre-feet of water per day, compared to the approximately 40,000 acre-feet of Missouri River water that passes through Bismarck-Mandan each day.
Let’s work with that.
I’ve read that it takes millions of gallons of water and perhaps 2,000 visits from a truck in order to drill a well. Finally came across something that puts that in perspective.
Let’s look at the water used to drill a well in terms of tradeoff. What else could we do with the water we use to drill and frack a well?
Looking only at the water input, with the same amount of water we could:
The Economist has a 14 page special report on natural gas in their July 14 edition: An unconventional bonanza. I discussed that previously here.
The article Sorting frack from fiction, puts the water and truck traffic in perspective.
Consider this for water: Read more…
I’ve read that it takes millions of gallons of water and perhaps 2,000 visits from a truck in order to drill a well.
Finally came across something that puts that in perspective.
I’ll start with truck traffic. Will discuss the water needs next.
Seriously.
We don’t have any more oil to drill. Let me prove it to you.
In 2000, we had 21 billion barrels of proved oil reserves. Proved reserves are the amount that is economically and technically feasible to produce.
In 1999 we produced 5.9M barrels a day. Prediction for production in 2000 was 5.8M bopd. That latter number is equal to 2.11B barrels a year.
That means as of January 1, 2000 we had 9.92 years of oil that we could economically and technically get to. In other words, we ran out of oil back in November 2009 or earlier.
Check out the previous illustrations of fracking I’ve mentioned here and here.
Then go search for illustrations that are critical of fracking. Ask yourself what critical information is missing.
I was going to link to specific examples, but there are so many it is hard to choose. Also, pointing out flagrant omissions and clever distortions from people’s videos tends to get them irritated. I’m not interested in a flame war.
There seem to be two common problems.
Reuters reports Shale energy triggers bean rush in India.
Gum from a bean called guar is a key ingredient in hydraulic fracturing. It makes the mixture of sand and water that is injected into a well more fluid and easier flowing. Here is a more detailed explanation from Reuters:
Guar gum is used to increase the viscosity of proppants, materials which are forced into shale fractures to enlarge them so that the oil and gas can be extracted. It also helps reduce friction, which in turn decreases the energy consumed.
How much do you need to frack a well? The Reuters article says nine metric tons per well.
Demand for guar gum has exploded. Prices have increased by a factor of about 10 in the last year.
Previous posts show superb illustrations of fracking here and here. I browsed the ‘net and found a few more illustrations that are good:
Here is an illustration of the fracking process. Notice that the ground water is usually 100’ to 500’ below the surface. The horizontal run is usually 1 or 1.5 miles down. There’s thousands of feet of hard granite that isolates the ground water at 500’. Notice the mile of rock in the illustration between the fracking level and ground water.
North Dakota Oil is an introduction to the amazing oil boom in the Bakken field. The Bakken spreads across North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan and is the source of the economic boom in western North Dakota.
The report is a 21 page overview of the Bakken field, oil drilling in general, fracking in particular, and the astounding opportunities for jobs and oil production. It was produced by Oppidan.
I’ve mentioned the potential to see huge increase in oil and gas production in the U.S. in several posts. Start looking here, here, and here.
It’s not just the U.S. that could see huge increases in production. Check out these articles, courtesy of Carpe Diem:
Reuters: Exclusive: UK has vast shale gas reserves, geologists say
New technology from the U.S. (that means fracking) could make large volumes of shale gas off the coast of UK economically viable, pushing England to the top of reserves worldwide.
Here’s the potential: Read more…
There’s an astounding increase in oil and gas production from the Eagle Ford region in Texas in the last 15 months. That field starts north of Laredo and runs to the northeast.
Key tidbits from this post by Energy Information Administration – Eagle Ford oil and natural gas well starts rose sharply in first quarter 2012: Read more…
