Energy – Page 10 – Outrun Change

Last 2 zero-emission power plants in California will be shut down.

Natural gas turbine power plant. Replacement power source for 75% of the power from Diablo Canyon nuclear plants. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock. — Natural gas turbine power plant. Replacement power source for 75% of the electricity from Diablo Canyon nuclear plants. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

PG&E agrees to close Diablo Canyon in 2025. San Luis Obispo Tribune reports on 6/21 that PG&E decided not to apply for another 20 year license and will close the two nuclear reactors in 2025.

The massive loss of electricity generation capacity will be replaced by intermittent renewables, both solar and wind. At least that is the company line being feed to the public.

These are the last nuclear power plants in California after San Onofre closed in 2012.

The Diablo Canyon facility provides 9% of the power that is generated in the state. One out of every ten watts.

Here is what I learned by stretching my brain while browsing Wikipedia:

Continue reading “Last 2 zero-emission power plants in California will be shut down.”

More followup on multi-well pad drilling. Links for a couple of superb photos.

Multi-well pad being drilled. Photo by James Ulvog. — Multi-well pad being drilled in Williston. Photo by James Ulvog.

Yesterday’s post on multi-well pad drilling saw lots of visitors from The Million Dollar Way. Bruce Oksol linked to the post in his discussion, Multi-Well Pad Drilling In The Bakken.

He has discussed this pad before. See his post for links.

Mr. Oksol links to a photo of the site taken by Vern Whitten: Vern Whitten Fall Portfolio. Since I try really hard to avoid copyright violations, you won’t see his photo on this blog. Instead you can see Mr. Whitten’s photo at this link. It is photo 28 of 39.

Incredible view from an incredible photographer.

Continue reading “More followup on multi-well pad drilling. Links for a couple of superb photos.”

Multi-well pad drilling in North Dakota

View from the highway that caught my interest. That is a lot of wells. Photo by James Ulvog.

One of many ways energy wizards are driving down the cost of drilling for oil is putting multiple wells on one site.

7/4 – Amy Dalrymple at Dickinson Press – Bakken multi-well pads getting bigger – The technique of drilling several wells from one site, called ~~multi-pad~~ multi-well pad drilling, is increasing. Both the number of pads and the number of wells per pad is going up.

For several years now I have noticed multiple pump jacks on one site.

In September 2015, I saw a 15 well pad. It is a few miles west of Ross and about a mile and a half north of highway 2. You can see it on Google maps at coordinates 48.333785, -102.653962, although the satellite photo is really old. It shows only the middle six wells with pumps installed and a drilling rig working on the west row of wells. No progress on the east row of wells.

Photo above is of the site. Here are a few more photos: Continue reading “Multi-well pad drilling in North Dakota”

More on the foolish Malthusian mindset that we’re gonna’ run out of everything

Here are three more stories in just the last week proving yet again the foolish of Malthusian thinking. The experts in a field have no clue, absolutely no clue, of the total amount of any resource available on this amazing planet. Whether it is water, crude oil, or helium, the experts don’t know what previously unknown field they will find next.

7/1 – The Million Dollar Way – Peak Oil? What Peak Oil? Huge Discovery For Hess, Exxon; $70 Billion at Current Prices – This post points to an article at Yahoo: Exxon Might Have Just Made The Largest Oil Find In Two Years. ExxonMobil and Hess Corp are in a joint venture that just discovered a huge field in deep water 120 miles off the coast of Guyana.

The new field, called Liza, likely has somewhere between 800M and 1.4B oil-equivalent barrels. Yeah, that’s somewhere in the range of one and a half billion barrels of oil. That nobody knew about. Until now.

To put this in context, there have been only five brand-new discoveries in the last four years with recoverable amounts of over 500M barrels. Only five? ONLY? To my little brain that is astounding.

Continue reading “More on the foolish Malthusian mindset that we’re gonna’ run out of everything”

Twists and turns in North Dakota energy

There is another hint of a whiff in the air that completion work in North Dakota may be picking up.

Federal injunction postpones shutting down all the crew camps within reach of the Williston City Commissioners. Hint of pushback from commissioners since the crew camps are now unlicensed.

Flaring in North Dakota has dropped dramatically in the last two years.

(Have you noticed Amy Dalrymple is the author of a large portion of the interesting reporting in North Dakota?)

6/25 – Amy Dalrymple of Forum News Service at Bismarck Tribune – Fracking jobs show signs of life in Bakken – The signs of life are very small, but visible.

Job Service of North Dakota is reporting some new jobs getting listed for work related to well completion: fracking, workover rigs, and trucking.

Continue reading “Twists and turns in North Dakota energy”

Rig count in North Dakota in first half of 2016

One small part of the legacy of Aubrey McClendon. Photo by James Ulvog. — Photo by James Ulvog.

Here is a recap of the North Dakota rig count, all from Million Dollar Way. Focus is on the first half of 2016. Some older data repeated for recent context: Continue reading “Rig count in North Dakota in first half of 2016”

2013 construction costs for different energy sources

Construction of the above is four times as expensive as natural gas, but at least this won’t incinerate birds. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Million Dollar Way pointed me to EIA data for 2013 on the costs for construction and amount of new capacity for wind, solar, natural gas, hydro and biomass. As expected, the non-reliables have extremely high construction costs.

The data can be found here

Since the graph is public information, I will post it below:

Source: Energy Information Administration

Continue reading “2013 construction costs for different energy sources”

Yet another reason I am so optimistic when I take my eyes off the political news of the day: the energy revolution that keeps gaining speed.

One more illustration of the energy revolution currently underway. BTW, flaring is down to about 11% of all natural gas produced. Photo by James Ulvog. — One more illustration of the energy revolution currently underway. BTW, flaring is down to 9.2% of all natural gas produced. About 91% is captured, which shows great progress. Photo by James Ulvog.

When I look at the political news and the headlines in general news every morning, I get so discouraged. When I look away from those areas I am so optimistic.

Consider what the two following articles suggest about how bright our economic future could be: an abundant supply of oil and gas at increasingly lower cost to produce.

6/13 – JH at The American Interest – Resilient Shale Producers Get Their Second Wind – Article mentions a Financial Times article which indicates there is some increase in drilling, which is driven by prices a few weeks ago. Since then oil prices have come up further. Discussion speculates if prices remain in the $50 range there will be even more drilling.

The small-scale and short development time of shale wells creates a soft ceiling on prices. Shale production can increase quickly which will put supplies on the market quickly, which will counter a surge in prices.

A quoted analyst says his expectation is a long-term price of oil around $60. There will be fluctuations up to $80 and down to $40, but the price will tend toward $60. Drillers needing a price higher than that to be profitable will have a rough time.

Continue reading “Yet another reason I am so optimistic when I take my eyes off the political news of the day: the energy revolution that keeps gaining speed.”

News from Bakken – 6/15

Whether a boom time or slow down, all the oil activity has disrupted life in North Dakota. Photo by James Ulvog.

Two reports on the issue of whether transitory housing will remain in Williston: one court case closed with one remaining; city allows another year and a half to remove the camps.

Young guys who moved to North Dakota and decided to stay have brought their wifes to the area and guess what? Lots of them are having babies. By the way, our son is in that category, our daughter-in-law is someone who moved as well, and our grandson is one of the following statistics.

Finally, an indicator why people in North Dakota don’t like all the changes. I get it. Really, I get it: there are ugly sides to economic expansion.

6/8 – Amy Dalrymple at Oil Patch Dispatch – Williston Wins One Crew Camp Court Case, Another Looms – There are two cases and process against the city’s plan to shut down all crew camps. The case in state court has ended with the judge refusing to issue an injunction.

The federal case is still pending.

Continue reading “News from Bakken – 6/15”

Follow-up on the death of Aubrey McClendon

I’ve previously discussed the unexpected death of Aubrey McClendon, a pioneer in the fracking revolution that is changing the world. You can find my posts here. Two official reports were released this week on his fatal accident.

6/7 – Wall Street Journal – Police Probe Finds Nothing to Suggest Aubrey McClendon Committed Suicide – Two months of research by the Oklahoma City police, including criminal and accident scene investigators found no indications or hints that Mr. McClendon killed himself in the accident. Continue reading “Follow-up on the death of Aubrey McClendon”

Oil prices edging up and OPEC won’t cap production, so how soon will shale drilling increase?

How soon do you suppose these things will again blossom on the plains of North Dakota? Photo by James Ulvog.

Oil prices are moving up and OPEC isn’t planning to do anything to hold down production. Completions appear to be slowly increasing. What price will it take for drilling to increase? Price drop has forced improvements in shale oil and the technical knowledge will not go away when drilling increases.

5/31 – Energy Media Group at Bakken.com – Oil prices set for fourth-straight monthly gain – Oil prices have been moving up slowly for several months. Currently oil is in the range of $50.

6/2 – AP at Bakken.com – OPEC states fail to reach deal on production – At the scheduled meeting on 6/2, OPEC members did not reach an agreement to cap production.

Copying a line out of an old Monty Python skit, the secretary-general insisted that OPEC isn’t dead yet.

6/1 – Daily Caller – US Fracking Poised for Comeback, OPEC Continues to Flounder – Speculation of different people is fracking to take off again when oil is above $50, others think it will take around $60 for sustained increase in drilling.

Continue reading “Oil prices edging up and OPEC won’t cap production, so how soon will shale drilling increase?”

Guesses on long term impact of shale revolution

Just one of many thousands of reasons OPEC is in distress. Photo by James Ulvog.

A guess on what price will keep the shale revolution going in the very short-term. Background discussions of the impact from the shale revolution: cheap oil era is upon us, oil prices won’t hit $100 again, and OPEC has lost its pricing power. Interview with Daniel Yergin is a must read.

4/28 – The Million Dollar Way – Lifeline for Oil Companies – Here is a guess on the framework for oil pricing, courtesy of Rigzone:

$40 – lifeline for US shale oil
$50 – most shale companies survive
$60 – all thrive

5/4 – Reuters at Dickingson Press – DUCs in a row: Oilfield servicers to gain as more wells completed – Halliburton and Baker Hughes expect a number of Drilled but UnCompleted wells (DUC) to be fracked now that prices have recovered somewhat. They expect the gross number of DUCs to decline.

5/3 – Scientific American – The Age of Cheap Oil and Natural Gas is Just Beginning – Authors see two revolutions that will continue to spread.

Continue reading “Guesses on long term impact of shale revolution”

More news on the environmental and ecological damage caused by unreliable renewables.

FWS proposes to allow 4,200 incidental takings (that means killing them) of the above bird each year. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The bad news just keeps rolling in on how much damage is caused by wind and solar power. An update on the proposal to allow wind projects to kill off a bunch of eagles, more followup on an Ivanpah tower starting itself on fire, and negative electricity prices in Germany.

5/15 – Robert Bryce at Wall Street Journal – An Ill Wind: Open Season on Bald Eagles / Sacrificing 4,200 of the birds a year for green energy sounds fine to regulators.

Proposed rule will extend to 30 years from 5 years the amount of time that wind farm operators are allowed to kill eagles. This will allow taking out up to 4,200 bald eagles a year out of the estimated 72,400 living in the US today.

Continue reading “More news on the environmental and ecological damage caused by unreliable renewables.”

Ivanpah wing toasting facility toasts Ivanpah wing toasting facility

Ivanpah facility toasted itself instead of birds on Thursday. Photo by James Ulvog.

The solar facility that typically sets birds on fire scored itself big time on Thursday.

One of the solar collecting towers at Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System had a fire about two-thirds of the way up the tower. Early reports indicate some of the garage-door sized mirrors were misaligned and focused the searing heat on the middle part of tower instead of the collector. The heat reportedly started a number of electrical cables on fire.

The solar generator set itself on fire instead of setting birds on fire which generates visible streamers. Those are birds started on fire and falling to the ground streaming smoke.

Continue reading “Ivanpah wing toasting facility toasts Ivanpah wing toasting facility”

Category: Energy