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.
Eagle Ford Shale gives another data point on the shrinking costs of drilling: Anadarko’s Eagle Ford Well Costs Down Below $6 Million.
Post describes Anadarko’s success on reducing costs. Check out the key paragraph: Continue reading “Dropping costs in Eagle Ford field”
The quote is from Tom Lehrer. Yes, that guy, the funny one. The quote is discussed by Philosoblog at a post of the same name.
The point of the quote, and the discussion at Philosoblog, is that native skill counts on playing the piano, but long practice, focused effort, and doing the boring stuff, like finger drills and scales will pay off tremendously. There’s studying, practicing, and other dreary stuff in your field. You know what it is.
Are you willing to do the drills and hard work to thrive and get a lot more out of life?
Update 6/24/15: I recently bought a couple of Tom Lehrer’s albums. The actual line is a bit more earthly, but the point still stands.
The comment he attributed to a philosopher friend, right before he was taken away to the Massachusetts state home for the bewildered, was:
Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Production in March averaged 782,934 bopd, up about 0.5% from the slightly revised February amount of 779,144 bopd.
Continue reading “Oil production in North Dakota barely increases in 3-13”
John Bredehoft ponders Striking the balance between freedom and privacy, and the other Empoprise rule
With almost everyone having a cell phone that can record video and audio, we need to work through the issue of balancing privacy right to *not* be recorded and the freedom to record things of interest.
As a society, we haven’t come to terms with that issue.
John has a suggestion: Continue reading “With cell phone cameras everywhere, here is one proposal for how to balance freedom to record and the right to privacy”
“This is an industry, not a boom.”
“It is going to last for a very long time!”
Million Dollar Way pointed out this great Powerpoint slide from Williston Economic Development on what’s going on in Bakken. Tom Rolfstad is the director.
If you are following the new frontier of energy on my blog, you will want to check out this presentation. It’s superb. Great points that are told without a speaker:
Continue reading “Superb background on Bakken – an industry not a boom”
And as long as you didn’t really mean to off them.
The Los Angeles Times reports Companies won’t face charges in condor deaths.
The federal Fish and Wildlife Service told the operators of Terra-Gen Power’s wind farm in the heart of condor habitat they
…will not be prosecuted if their turbines accidentally kill a condor during the expected 30-year life span of the project.
I’m starting to get a kick out of the idea that we measure humongous amounts of oil in terms of Bakkens.
Here’s the latest example, in terms of explaining the magnitude of what’s happening in Texas:
In just the last 16 months since October 2011 when the state produced 1.598 million bpd, Texas oil output has increased by almost 700,000 bpd to 2.295 million bpd in February, which is the equivalent of adding an entire new oil field the size of the North Dakota Bakken formation to the US oil supply (based on February production in the Bakken of 715,000 bpd).
Output increase in Texas over 18 months equals one Bakken.
That’s point number 3 at Carpe Diem’s post explaining The meteoric rise in Texas oil output continues and is one of the most remarkable energy success stories in US history.
Amazing.
RBN Energy has a report, If You’ve Got the Money We’ve Got the Crude – new Refineries in North Dakota, that explains
North Dakota’s only refinery produces less than half the diesel the State consumes. To help remedy that disparity the first new refinery to be built in the Lower 48 since 1977 is under construction today and two more new refineries are planned.
Very cool. There is more demand for diesel in the state than the one refinery there can produce.
Here’s my simple summary:
One of the great things about the tech revolution is the low barrier to entry for lots of things. Used to be it would require a receptionist, stat typist, full-sized copy machine, and large bookshelf with lots of expensive books to start an accounting firm.
Now you can start a firm at a desk with equipment that fits on the desk. I know it can be done. I did it.
Same with writing, publishing, creating music, and any business that involves professional services or selling over the ‘net.
So why not pursue your dream?
Philosiblog expands that idea with If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs.
You don’t have to realize any benefit from humongous amounts of oil in the ground.
California isn’t. California doesn’t want to.
A great Wall Street Journal editorial summarizes Texas wanting oil and getting much wealth while California doesn’t want either: A Tale of Two Oil States.
The editorial says Texas pumps more oil than the next four largest states combined and could double their production by 2016 and triple in another decade. Production in California is declining.
The editorial points out there about 400K oil jobs in Texas but only around one-tenth that, or 40K, in California.
Warning: sarcasm alert. I try to avoid destructive humor. When I look at foolishness about energy, ridicule obviously becomes a great tool to point out the foolishness.
There is a lot of oil here: Continue reading “Texas wants oil riches, California doesn’t. We’d rather skip the jobs & taxes and slaughter golden eagles to get our clean energy.”
There are a lot of factors explaining why drilling costs are higher in Bakken than elsewhere. Multiple factors explain why costs are dropping.
Seeking Alpha, by Michael Filloon, explains in Bakken Update: Bakken Well Costs Are Decreasing Faster Than Companies Indicate.
Just a few reasons costs are higher: The formations are deeper, infrastructure hasn’t had decades to develop so isn’t as strong as elsewhere, the extreme cold weather makes drilling more difficult, the spring thaw makes truck deliveries slower because of lighter loads.
A number of factors beyond pad drilling and growing efficiency are at play to reduce costs. The article’s conclusion: Continue reading “More explanation why drilling costs are going down in Bakken”
I mentioned the dropping costs of production in Eagle Ford in this post.
Here’s the graph in the presentation slide deck for the 2013 report from the University of Texas San Antonio:
Thanks to R.T. Dukes of EagleFordShale.com for permission to repost his graph. Thanks to Professor Thomas Tunstall for a copy of the slide presentation.
(Cross-post from my other blog, Freedom Is Moral.)
I challenge you to this experiment:
Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days [you will] see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period [you will] see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart.
Why is there such a gulf between those two worlds?
Quote from here.
“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.
Continue reading “California may ban drilling technique that has been used for only 60 years”
The quote is from Helen Keller and Philosoblog discusses it in a post of the same name.
Deep down we all want our life work to make a big impact on the world. Those of us working or volunteering or donating in the nonprofit community want to change the world.