We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
The N.D. Public Service Commission approved the Thunder Spirit Wind LLC wind farm near Hettinger, N.D. The project is designed to generate 150-megawatts from 75 towers.
Construction is planned for this fall (’13), or at least parts will be ordered so the project can grab the federal tax credits.
From the Dickinson Press: ND regulators approve $300M wind farm project in Adams County.
My previous posts:
The Dickenson Press seems to have been the first to report on the leak: Pipeline leak spills 20,600 barrels of oil near Tioga.
The pipeline is reportedly 20 years old.
The farmer reporting the leak smelled the oil for a few days before he saw puddles in the field and oil sticking to his tires.
…is the name of a fun fable at Why not wind power.
The story tells of Kevin who starts a bakery making sugar-free baked goods made possible only with heavy subsidies from the government. Even with that, his baked goods are more expensive than the other bakers in town.
Add a fresh discovery of up to 600,000,000 barrels of oil 300 miles off the Newfoundland coast to the list of oil that no one knew existed before it was found, evaluated, and an estimate made of recoverable oil.
One of a long list of fatal fallacies in Peak Oil doctrine is that no more oil will ever be discovered.
Here’s the first estimate I’ve seen for the highest level of output for Bakken oil.
The graph predicts crossing the 1 million point in early 2014 (hard to tell a specific point on a graph that has a 40 year scale, but that’s what it looks like.) About 2 million bopd in 2023 with a tail that falls back to a million in about 2038 dropping to around 400,000 in 2050.
That would be above 1M bopd for about 20 years.
Check out the graph from Sachs Global Investment Research found at Bakken Shale: Bakken Production Chart -Goldman Sachs.
Wow.
Oh. And that from a field that was producing 80,000 bopd a decade ago because none of the geology and engineering whizs had any idea how to get the oil out of the ground.
From 80K bopd to 2,000k bopd in 2 decades. Wow.
That’s the report from Dickinson Press, Oil, ag compete for role of ND’s biggest industry
Value of oil and natural gas produced in the state for the 12 months ending July 30, 2013 is estimated at $24.9 billion.
A record-setting year of revenue received by farmers and ranchers in 2012 was $12.1 billion. That is up from the previous record of $9B from 2010.
Here’s two criticisms of the high-tech version of medieval windmills, one humorously rhetorical and one serious.
First, wind farms were cutting edge technology 800 years ago – turbines are, quite literally, medieval.
Second, it is a sophisticated way to transfer money from public coffers to private pockets of a select few.
Continue reading “Wind farms – cutting edge technology in 1185 A.D.”
That’s the forecast from Lynn Helms, Director of the Department of Mineral Resources while addressing the North Dakota Petroleum Council meeting.
The projections for production are to eventually hit a level of 1,600,000 barrels a day. That is with the rapid decline rate in Bakken wells. July ’13 production for the state was 874,681 BOPD.
The Dickinson Press article, ND mineral resources director say Bakken in for some “turbulence” has this comment which needs explanation: Continue reading “Eventual Bakken production – 1.6M barrels a day. Current number of rigs could be in place for 20 years”
Average daily production in July was 874,681 barrels (bopd), which is an increase of 53,150 per day, or 6.47% for the month.
By my calc, this is an increase of 198,281 bopd from 7-12 to 7-13, or 29.3%. In the prior year (7-11 to 7-12), daily production increased by 251,231 bopd, or 50.1%.
The 12 month increase through 7-13 was smaller in amount and percent than the prior year. Only a one-third increase in a year. As I’ve pointed out before, only in the world of North Dakota oil production is a 29% annual increase not impressive when compared to the prior year.
Director’s cut is here.
Here are some graphs. Average daily production of the last 5 1/2 years: Continue reading “North Dakota oil production hits another record in 7-13 with 6.5% increase for month”
A 75 turbine wind-farm has been approved near the North Dakota/South Dakota border, south of Dickinson, southwest of Bismarck.
The zoning commission and county commission approved the farm Monday (9-9-13), according to an article in the Bismarck Tribune, Adams County approved $350 million mega-wind farm near Hettinger.
Continue reading “Slice-and-dice farm approved in North Dakota”
Carpe Diem summarizes great news that “Eagle Ford June oil output increased 60% from a year ago to a new record high; will likely surpass Bakken next summer.”
Initial report shows production in Eagle Ford was about 621,000 barrels a day during June.
I haven’t figured out how to either track or understand the reports on Eagle Ford oil. The initial data is revised higher as additional companies report their data. For example, from my notes the initial reports rise anywhere from 26k bopd (9-12) up to 90k bopd (1-13) when all the data is in. That means that final tally for June is likely to be anywhere from 650k to near 700k.
The production race, million barrel prediction
If exploration of the third shelf of Three Forks had been completed instead of just started,
if exploration of fourth shelf were done instead of *not* started,
if price increases didn’t make economically unrecoverable oil economically recoverable,
if new technology didn’t make technically unrecoverable oil technically recoverable,
We may be hitting a peak in demand for oil. That’s the idea raised in The Economist two weeks ago – Yesterday’s Fuel.
Between a tremendous surge in natural gas production and car efficiencies, they perceive demand for oil may stabilize instead of continuing to grow.
Thus, we might finally have a real Peak Oil issue: Continue reading “Maybe there is a Peak Oil issue after all. That would be Peak Oil Consumption, not Peak Oil Production”
Huge increase in oil production in the U.S. created by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is a strategic threat to OPEC.
Against Crony Capitalism blog observes:
Saudi Arabia is concerned. Thanks to the shale gas revolution which has blossomed in the United States and which is starting to blossom in places like the United Kingdom and even China, the Saudi stranglehold on world energy reserves is loosening with each passing day.
Number of people in Williston is growing so fast that the people who track such things are having a hard time figuring out how many are there.
Latest study is from N.D. State University, reported by AP in Grand Forks Herald: Study: Williston population growth to continue.
Current estimate is somewhere between 25,000 and 33,000 people are living in Williston. That’s up from the official count in the 2010 census of 14,700.
Notice the range of the estimate?
Continue reading “Estimates of population in Williston show doubling since 2010”