Category: Energy

The race is on – when will Eagle Ford and Bakken hit a million barrels a day?

I’ve been tracking predictions for when Bakken hits a million barrels a day. Both Carpe Diem and Million Dollar Way put a prediction on the table today.

Check out the astounding increase in production in Eagle Ford shown in the graph from Carpe Diem: Energy fact of the day: Eagle Ford Shale sets new oil output record in May, will likely surpass Bakken Shale next year.

Production in May was 581,923 bopd, per the preliminary report.

Continue reading “The race is on – when will Eagle Ford and Bakken hit a million barrels a day?”

Air travel at record level in North Dakota

Record increases in boardings over last year.  Statewide increase of 9%, according to Bismark Tribune, N.D. airports post highest June boarding ever.

Article says boardings out of Williston tripled since June 2012.

That makes sense –  United and Delta flights to Williston started since last June; last fall as I recall.

Jet service from Dickinson to Denver and Minneapolis started in June 2013.

Obviously the oil boom is driving that traffic increase.

New tech is changing undersea drilling too – peak oil #27

Amazing technology developments are making drilling in the ocean easier, reducing cost, and revealing the locations of hard-to-find oil.

Six Tech Advancements Changing the Fossil Fuels Game at Rigzone outlines the changes.

I like this sentence that points out what everyone knows (specifically that a particular well or field only so much oil and will eventually run dry) with what the peak oilers refuse to believe (that there is another field to drill which is now reachable with new technology):

Rig advancements are coming online in tandem with the significantly increased momentum to drill in deeper waters as shallower reserves run out. 

Oh, and advancement in technology is just one of several fatal flaws to the “peak oil” foolishness.

Here’s some of the new tech. One of the 6 applies to drilling on land – at least I think it doesn’t apply to deep-sea drilling.

Continue reading “New tech is changing undersea drilling too – peak oil #27”

North Dakota oil production sets another record in 5-13

Production state-wide hit 810,314 bopd in May, up 2.07% from revised April amount of 793,913 bopd.

Here’s a graph:

 bakken production 5-13

Six month increase

That is an increase of only 8.1% over six months, which was the last month before the winter impacts hit.

Continue reading “North Dakota oil production sets another record in 5-13”

Issues on hand from the oil-loaded train crash in Canada

Current estimate is around 50 people were killed in a train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Canada a week ago. That’s a distressing estimate because many people are still missing and only a few bodies have been recovered.

A few articles for background:

There will be plenty of issues to deal with from the disaster: regulation, train safety, our reliance on oil, pipeline vs rail transport.

An article at The Globe and Mail, Harsh Lessons, imperfect answers in Lac-Mégantic, by Margaret Wente starts to outline the issues.

Continue reading “Issues on hand from the oil-loaded train crash in Canada”

Survey of shale oil; also the Peak Oil Myth – #26

Matt Ridley provides an overview of the flood of fracked shale oil in his post, The dash for shale oil will shake the world.

He points to The Shale Oil Boom: a US Phenomenon, a newly released report from Leonardo Maugeri.

I’ve mentioned this in the past, but look again at the explosion of estimated recoverable oil in Bakken: Continue reading “Survey of shale oil; also the Peak Oil Myth – #26”

2 graphs that show how dramatically oil production has increased in the U.S.

Carpe Diem has two graphs that give a visual on how much the energy field has changed in a very short time.

Check out the first one – More on the spectacular rise in Texas oil production — maybe the most remarkable energy success stories in US history

The smoothed red lines are amazing. Slow decline in production from 1985 to about 2003. Flat production until about 2011. Then a space shuttle imitation. Almost, but not quite straight up for the last two years or so. Since 2010 or 2011, production in Texas has soared back to 1985 levels.

Now look at the second graph. The article title tells the story: No. 1 US produced more petroleum in March than: a) Saudi Arabia, and b) Europe, Central and South America combined.

Continue reading “2 graphs that show how dramatically oil production has increased in the U.S.”

Compromises developing in conflict over fracking

That’s the observation from William P. Barrett in his article at Forward – Fracking’s Resilience – with compromise afoot, environmental and political objections to the controversial energy extraction technique are likely to fade.

There are several indications that some compromises are developing that would allow fracking to continue and still meet the concerns of some people who are currently critical of the technology.

Check out the article for a survey of several indicators.

The article also points out several rounds of the battle of the documentaries. A healthy debate is underway.

Continue reading “Compromises developing in conflict over fracking”

Superb intro to the Bakken

Million Dollar Way has a great overview of the Bakken that gives a great introduction to the 21st century gold rush that is happening now in North Dakota.

Bruce Oksal’s post is For Newbies.

There’s a lot of great comments and explanation. Here’s a few of the biggest points described from my just-past-newbie-stage perspective.

It is a big deal

Continue reading “Superb intro to the Bakken”

Bakken is land of opportunity, but there are cautions to consider before you jump in your truck and start driving

“Williston 101: Tip for Job seekers” contains some cautions if you plan to head out for the new gold rush.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjj1BuWfh7o&feature=player_detailpage]

My list of things to consider before getting on the road: Continue reading “Bakken is land of opportunity, but there are cautions to consider before you jump in your truck and start driving”

Record increase in U.S. oil production. Lots of shale oil and gas around the world. Explain Peak Oil to me again please. #25

Because of fracking and horizontal drilling, the one year increase in U.S. oil production in 2012 was the largest increase in our history. The bounties from shale could spread to other countries.

U.S. production increase

The Wall Street Journal reports in their article U.S. Oil Notches Record Growth on data released by BP:

In the latest sign of the shale revolution remaking world energy markets, crude production in the U.S. jumped 14% last year to 8.9 million barrels a day,

Continue reading “Record increase in U.S. oil production. Lots of shale oil and gas around the world. Explain Peak Oil to me again please. #25”

Outbreak of common sense about fracking in California legislature and what Monterey Shale could mean to the state

A bill to ban fracking was defeated in the California Assembly week before last at a vote of 37-24 with 18 abstentions. That method of getting oil out of the ground has been used here in California for only 60 years.  I missed the news coverage of the vote so had to get caught up through the Wall Street Journal’s editorial, Fracturing in California.

The editorial points out that as you would expect the votes to ban energy development came from the wealthy coastal districts.

The votes to defeat? Continue reading “Outbreak of common sense about fracking in California legislature and what Monterey Shale could mean to the state”

In the Bakken, the calendar may say this is 2013, but for oil production it’s already 2016

In terms of Bentek’s forecast from 2011, production is already at 2016 levels. It is so cool they were wrong!

In the distant past of April 2011 (that data is only 24 months old), production was around 500k bopd. Production was forecast to hit around 700k bopd by the end of 2012 and around 900k bopd by December 2016.

That info from RBN Energy’s article Too Wrong for Too Long? How 2011 Bakken Crude Forecasts Compare to Today.

The graph of actual and forecast production now?

Continue reading “In the Bakken, the calendar may say this is 2013, but for oil production it’s already 2016”

Exporting natural gas – A great idea

Exporting natural gas would have two major advantages, it seems to me.

First, it would stabilize prices in the U.S. and around the world by integrating markets that are not connected.

Second, by creating more demand for U.S. produced gas and stabilizing prices it would encourage more exploration and production here. That is important because exploration has dropped off because of the currently low prices. We should export gas if we want to create the incentives that will result in production of more gas.

Continue reading “Exporting natural gas – A great idea”