$10,000 for a college degree? What a silly idea! Oops. It’s here.

I haven’t mentioned the efforts from the University of Texas system to create an option to get a college degree with a price point of $10,000.  Looks like they are making progress.

From Carpe Diem:  Markets in Everything: College Degree for < $10k. Continue reading “$10,000 for a college degree? What a silly idea! Oops. It’s here.”

Looks like the amazing UT San Antonio report on Eagle Ford Shale is already obsolete, or did you know it is already 2017?

Discussed a superb report from UT San Antonio about the economic impact of the Eagle Ford Shale play here. That new field with very  new drilling is having a huge impact on the regional economy.

Update 10-13-12:  I have dramatically revised the analysis presented here. I don’t understand the amounts mentioned in the EIA report, particularly when compared to actual production data reported for July. In another post located here, I’ve revised my analysis to show that the July production is generally on track with the moderate scenario forecast.  Etiquette rules for blogging and the rules I follow on my blog call for leaving the original comments in place and noting corrections. (That means I don’t do the memory hole routine.) Instead of doing a massive rewrite of this post, I have another post for an update:  What’s the production level in Eagle Ford and how does it compare to some recent forecasts?

Update 2:  Just in case it isn’t obvious, I continue to be amazed at the Eagle Ford field.  It is a game changer nationally and internationally. You really ought to check out the research report.  It is superb.

The report has great analysis of the impact on jobs, payroll, and sales tax revenue in the region.  The authors have forecasts of production in 2021 and lots of data for the last few years. The report is  Economic Impact of the Eagle Ford Shale. I’m neither an economist nor academician, so I can’t appreciate some of the details they have present, but they sure did ‘show their work’ as your high school algebra teacher would say, through footnotes and listing assumptions & formulas for their calculations.

As I wrote my previous post though, I realized something didn’t look right.

Here’s the fantastically wonderful problem.  Expected production in April 2012 for gas & condensate is at the level they forecasted for 2014.  Expected gas production is at the level projected in 2017.

Let me explain –

Continue reading “Looks like the amazing UT San Antonio report on Eagle Ford Shale is already obsolete, or did you know it is already 2017?”

Eagle Ford shale field production – economic impact report

The University of Texas at San Antonio released a report describing the Economic Impact of the Eagle Ford Shale.

The study describes the same boom-time problems in the Eagle Ford field as exist in the Bakken area – restaurants struggling to hire enough staff to stay open, hotels fully booked, RV parks going up everywhere, and a crush of school children arriving for classes whose parents are living in an RV & not paying property taxes to fund the schools.

The report describes in detail that production increased dramatically from 2010 to 2011.  It makes projections for 10 years out. Continue reading “Eagle Ford shale field production – economic impact report”

Energy boom isn’t limited to the U.S.

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: Continue reading “Energy boom isn’t limited to the U.S.”

“An Energy Primer”

Fantastic primer on energy in the U.S. and world:

Hard Facts – An Energy Primer from the Institute for Energy Research.

I’ve just started reading it.  Superb stuff.  The first few tidbits that  jump out at me:

Estimates that there is more recoverable oil in the U.S. than in Saudi Arabia:

The United States is home to the richest oil shale deposits in the world—estimates are there are about 1 trillion barrels of recoverable oil in U.S. oil shale deposits, nearly four times that of Saudi Arabia’s proved oil reserves.5

Vastly improved energy efficiency in the U.S. even with expansion in the per capita GDP:

• Energy use per person in the United States fell 12 percent between 1979 and 2010 from 359 million BTUs to 317 million BTUs per person.19

• Energy intensity—energy consumption per dollar of GDP—fell by 52 percent between 1973 and 2011.20

Are we running out of oil and gas we know about and can get to at economical price?

Continue reading ““An Energy Primer””

Some skepticism on mining asteroids

Count The Economist as skeptical on the plans Planetary Resources has to mine asteroids as one step in their privately funded space exploration efforts.

In their article, Going platinum, they survey some of the hurdles.

Continue reading “Some skepticism on mining asteroids”

A personal 3-D printer. Just $500.

Not that I’m ready to get one right now, but someday….

There’s a 3D printer called a Solidoodle that’s available for $500.  Can print up to 6” items.  It uses the melted extruded plastic approach to printing. Check it out here.

Cool video demonstration at the link.

That is an amazing example of the things that are available now.

How big a play is Eagle Ford? Huge.

ConocoPhillips is planning to focus on Eagle Ford.

FuelFix reports in their article Shale gas “a blessing” for U.S. Mulva says:

Mulva {who is the retiring CEO of ConocoPhillips} said the company this year plans to drill 160 wells in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, 300 wells in the Permian Basin in West Texas and up to 30 wells in North Texas’ Barnett shale.

Continue reading “How big a play is Eagle Ford? Huge.”

Here’s what the pain of transition to the new economy looks like

There is going to be a lot of pain as we transition into whatever the new economy is going to look like.

Just like it hurt to shift from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy, there will be hurt in the shift from industrial to whatever-we-name-the-new-thing economy.

Ron Fourner and Sophe Quinton describe that pain in How Americans Lost Trust in Our Greatest Institutions.

Continue reading “Here’s what the pain of transition to the new economy looks like”

In terms of comparable salary, how much tech you could get today for what it took to buy a Commodore 64 in 1982?

Short answer:

Then: Commodore C-64 plus 10K hard drive

Now: Mid-range desktop computer plus color laser printer with enough left over to buy a 16GB iPad and iPhone 4S.

Previously discussed the first two computers I owned here.  I realize that dates me, but it gives me perspective to deeply appreciate how far tech has developed.

Long answer:

Continue reading “In terms of comparable salary, how much tech you could get today for what it took to buy a Commodore 64 in 1982?”

Putting the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale fields into perspective

Let’s talk round numbers.  Half a million barrels of oil a day from each of two new fields, Bakken and Eagle Ford.  Minimal production just a few years ago. I’m making a totally wild guess that production will double in the next year or less.

There’s an old game of If such-and-such was its own country, it would be the Xth largest in the world. For example, if California were its own country, only six European countries would be larger in population.

Let’s play that game with just the Bakken and Eagle Ford fields.

Continue reading “Putting the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale fields into perspective”

Williston hits the WSJ editorial page

The oil boom in Williston is of high interest to me since our son is living there and participating in the boom times.

So the discussion on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday was mostly old news to me:

Continue reading “Williston hits the WSJ editorial page”