Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, Bakken Shale, crude oil, energy, horizontal drilling, James Hamilton, Jeffrey Brown, marginal costs of production, natural gas liquids, Niobrara, oil price, oil shale, peak oil, shale oil, shale plays, tight gas, tight oil, tight oil formations, unconventional oil, westtexas
Throwing a little cold water on some recent, loudly reported unscientific predictions. When you read Hamilton, always be sure to read the comments by Jeffrey Brown for an important Big Picture view.
In addition to the uncertainties noted above about extrapolating historical production rates, the rate at which production declines from a given well over time is another big unknown. Another key point to recognize is the added cost of extracting oil from tight formations. West Texas Intermediate is currently around $85/barrel. With the huge discount for Canadian and north-central U.S. producers, that means that producers of North Dakota sweet are only offered $61 a barrel. Tight oil is not going to be the reason that we return to an era of cheap oil, for the simple reason that if oil again fell below $50/barrel, it wouldn’t be profitable to produce with these methods. Nor is tight oil likely to get the U.S. back to the levels of field production that we saw in 1970. But tight oil will likely provide a source of significant new production over the next decade as long as the price does not fall too much.
via Econbrowser: Shale oil and tight oil.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Douglas, energy, fracking, Natural gas, natural gas drilling, Niobrara, Niobrara shale, shale gas, shale plays, tight gas, Wyoming
Niobrara fights back.
An oil well blowout in Wyoming prompted 50 residents to evacuate their homes amid concern that a spewing cloud of natural gas could explode.
Gas continued to erupt from the ground Wednesday after the blowout Tuesday afternoon five miles northeast of Douglas in east-central Wyoming. Witnesses told television station KCWY-TV they could hear the roaring gas from six miles away.
Residents evacuate after gas leaks from Wyo. well.
Filed under: maps | Tags: Bakken, Barnett Shale, Eagle Ford, energy, energy production, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, Marcellus, Niobrara, oil production, Piceance Basin, shale gas, shale oil, tight gas, tight oil
Via EIA.
click to enlarge
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: COGC, Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, drilling regulations, EOG Resources, fracking, fracking sand, Garden Creek 07-14H, Niobrara, oil production, radioactive fracking sand, tight oil, Weld County
A sensitive area due to shallow groundwater. According to a site assessment, groundwater is 20 feet below the surface.
http://ogccweblink.state.co.us/results.aspx?id=415806
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, Barnett, frack, map, Marcellus, Niobara, Niobrara, Shale, tight gas, tight oil, tracking, unconventional oil
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