Tag: other major oil fields

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”

California has two-thirds of the shale oil reserves in the U.S.

The New York Times noticed the amount of shale reserves in California and wrote a major article:  Vast Oil Reserve May Now Be Within Reach, and Battle Heats Up.

The billion dollar question – do we in California have the wisdom to safely tap the economic growth, tens of thousands of jobs (if not a hundred thousand), and a couple billion of state tax revenue every year for the next couple of decades that shale oil could provide?

Two key comments from the article:

Continue reading “California has two-thirds of the shale oil reserves in the U.S.”

Cline Shale – another name you want to learn – “The shale rush has just begun” – Peak Oil #17

One of the biggest reasons that Peak Oil is so astoundingly foolish is the assumption that there will never, ever be any more oil found under the ground. Another huge assumption is that those dirty, evil, money-grubbing oil barons will never, ever figure out a new way to get the oil out.

This month’s object lesson that both assumptions are completely wrong is Cline Shale. I will have another object lesson in a few days.

Yeah, I’ve not heard of Cline Shale before reading this afternoon’s post from Million Dollar Way – Peak Oil? What Peak Oil? Now We Have the Cline Shale.

Continue reading “Cline Shale – another name you want to learn – “The shale rush has just begun” – Peak Oil #17”

We don’t have to prosper, California edition

Update:  This is part 12 of my Peak Oil series.)

An article in Business Insider suggests There Is A Shale Oil Field Under Santa Barbara Four-Times Bigger Than The Bakken.

The article cites without linking (and I don’t want to spend the time finding the source) an EIA analysis:

According to the EIA, the Monterey Formation, which covers an enormous chunk of Southern California and terminates near Santa Barbara, has 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude — four times as much as the Bakken formation in North Dakota.

Continue reading “We don’t have to prosper, California edition”

At the end of July, Bakken and Eagle Ford had 478 rigs combined. What would you say about a field that has 500 rigs working?

I’d say that’s great! Cool!

Where would that be?, I hear you ask. Try the Permian Basin. You know, that ancient field that is in perpetual decline, which just ‘proves’ the peak oil idea that there’s no more oil to be found.

Eric Fox at Motley Fool describes The Resurrection of the Permian Basin. He says the rig count in second quarter of ’12 passed the 500 mark. That is more rigs that are working in Bakken and Eagle Ford combined.

Production growth

This estimate is for production in the field to increase about 330,000 bopd in the next 4 years: Continue reading “At the end of July, Bakken and Eagle Ford had 478 rigs combined. What would you say about a field that has 500 rigs working?”

Mississippian Lime – another name to watch

This discussion sounds like it’s about Williston, North Dakota:

Oil rigs are springing up in farmers’ fields. “No vacancy” signs hang in the windows of local motels, and a steady stream of trucks barrel through Main Streets. Along the state’s southern border, the once-quiet farm towns are quickly transforming into boomtowns.

Hundreds of workers seeking high-paying jobs are flocking to places like Harper County, which had resorted to paying people to live there because of its declining population. Businesses are coming back from the dead and a housing shortage has caused rents to triple.

That is actually a description of what’s going on in south central Kansas, according to CNNMoney’s article Oil boom strikes Kansas.

Continue reading “Mississippian Lime – another name to watch”

Oil boom on the horizon in Kansas? Also, a hint of the lucrative economics of fracking.

Walter Russell Mead points to an article here that says prospectors are spreading out across southern Kansas looking for oil. They are in the Mississippi Lime formation, roughly between Tulsa and Wichita and spreading to the west.

Two really cool comments in Mr. Mead’s post, What is the Matter with Kansas? If You Like Oil, Nothing.

First, here is a hint at the economics involved:

Continue reading “Oil boom on the horizon in Kansas? Also, a hint of the lucrative economics of fracking.”