oil production – Page 16

More background on Bakken drilling including well costs and EURs

Million Dollar Way points to a presentation by Continental Resources from October 2013 available on this page.

May as well disclose this is not an investment site. It would be foolish to make investment decisions based on what I say.

What I will do is comment on a few tidbits in the presentation that expand my knowledge with the idea that people reading my blog would likely learn as well.

Drilling costs

Falling costs of drilling are described on slide eight. Here’s the disclosed info: Continue reading “More background on Bakken drilling including well costs and EURs”

5 charts that show the dramatic impact of the energy revolution

Carpe Diem has some great graphs that show how much the energy world has changed in the last five years – Five charts that help put “Saudi America’s” shale revolution into perspective.

1 – Weekly US crude oil production ’89 to ’13

Continue reading “5 charts that show the dramatic impact of the energy revolution”

N.D. oil production passes 900,000 in August

Monthly increase was just over 4% from the revised July amounts. Preliminary August production number was 911,496 barrels per day. Revisions are usually quite small.

Amy Dalrymple has some comments from D.M.R. Director Lynn Helms on what the next two months of data might include. In her article, N.D. oil production tops 900,000 barrels per day, she reports:

Helms said he expects to see another significant production increase in September, but an unusually wet October brought a lot of work to a halt in the state’s busiest county, Helms said.

McKenzie County, which has about one-third of the state’s 183 drilling rigs, has had to close gravel roads to heavy trucks in recent days, which means rigs can’t move and trucks can’t haul water and sand needed for hydraulic fracturing.

So, expect a big increase in September, but not so much in October.

Here are three graphs to show the increase. Click on any of them to see a larger version.

Production by month from ’04 through 10-13:

Statewide and Bakken only:

Continue reading “N.D. oil production passes 900,000 in August”

Overview of shale oil & gas along with need for sustainable development for booming areas

Professor Tom Tunstall has a great TEDx San Antonio presentation. He provides a high level overview of shale oil and gas.

Update 12-16-13: You can view his presentation directly on YouTube. I watched again today. It is superb.

Update 12-27-13: Eagle Ford Shale blog has a list of seven takeaways – Eagle Ford Growth Means Opportunity – TED Talk – Video .

Update: Why does the Eagle Ford shale field run across the border into Mexico but production stops at the Rio Grande? Political and economic issues depress production in Mexico. As I’ve long said, you don’t have to benefit from the energy under the ground.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyqMYLedpdg]

He also goes into detail about the needs for local communities in boom areas to focus not just on roads, but the full range of infrastructure, such as K-12 schools, water treatment, hospitals & clinics, parks, and community meeting places. The full range of quality-of-life issues have a major role in people deciding where to live.

Wise local leaders will try to develop other industries that will sustain when there is a slowdown in energy. As a starter idea, he suggests higher end agriculture, such as raising olives and processing olive oil. Hunting, geothermal, water desalinization are other options.

Great video. Prof Tunstall’s section is about 10 minutes long. Well worth your time.

His portion starts about the 7 hour, 11 minute point. Here is the link again: http://new.livestream.com/tedx/TEDxSanAntonio/videos/32045908

Run that by me again – – Record year of agricultural production in North Dakota generates half the revenue of oil production?

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.

Continue reading “Run that by me again – – Record year of agricultural production in North Dakota generates half the revenue of oil production?”

North Dakota oil production hits another record in 7-13 with 6.5% increase for month

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”

Eagle Ford output passes 600K bopd in June – another prediction for 1M bopd in Bakken and Eagle Ford

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

Continue reading “Eagle Ford output passes 600K bopd in June – another prediction for 1M bopd in Bakken and Eagle Ford”

I’d be worried about Peak Oil if… (#30)

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,

Continue reading “I’d be worried about Peak Oil if… (#30)”

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:

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”

Superb intro to the Bakken

Million Dollar Way has a great overview of the Bakken that gives a great introduction to the 21^st 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”

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”

How much water does it take to frack all the wells in Bakken for a year? Less than one day’s discharge from Garrison dam.

One of the worries about fracking is the humongous huge amount of water it takes to frack a well. Around 4,000,000 gallons for just one well. That’s more than I could drink in a lifetime.

Let’s put that in perspective. I mentioned this before here, but let’s take another look.

The Garrison dam at the end of Lake Sakakawea provides hydroelectric power. You can get some background info here.

Bruce Oksol provides some background at his post Water For Fracking In the Bakken.

His conclusion?

Less than a day’s worth of discharge from the Garrison Dam should be enough water to frack all the wells that will be fracked in the North Dakota Bakken this year.

I’ll backstop his calculations below, which confirm his calculation.

Continue reading “How much water does it take to frack all the wells in Bakken for a year? Less than one day’s discharge from Garrison dam.”

In 3 years, oil production in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah is up 56% of North Dakota’s increase – Can we call that a half-Bakken?

Seems that oil production of a new find or the increase in a field is often compared to what’s going on in the Bakken. Haven’t seen others use Bakken as a unit of measure, but I’m having a kick doing so.

Story I’ve not been following is that horizontal drilling and fracking has increased production quite a bit in states other than North Dakota and Texas.

Continue reading “In 3 years, oil production in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah is up 56% of North Dakota’s increase – Can we call that a half-Bakken?”