Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, fracking, health care costs, shale gas, shale oil, tight gas, tight oil, Watford City
A less obvious form of corporate welfare.
The furious pace of oil exploration that has made North Dakota one of the healthiest economies in the country has had the opposite effect on the region’s health care providers. Swamped by uninsured laborers flocking to dangerous jobs, medical facilities in the area are sinking under skyrocketing debt, a flood of gruesome injuries and bloated business costs from the inflated economy.
via Boom in North Dakota Weighs Heavily on Health Care – NYTimes.com.
This post is an interesting companion to the one below.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fracking, fracking ban, it's about water, shale gas, tight gas, UK
Poor blokes have been snowed. Quite.
Not only has the UK green-lighted fracking, it is also using tax breaks to promote shale exploration and development. Indeed, the UK hopes to see a shale gas revolution of its own.
So what are the new rules for fracking? Right now it’s still a bit vague, but overall it involves a strengthening of oversight and an automated seismic activity detection system designed to halt operations in time.
via UK Lifts Fracking Ban, Now What?.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ambient air testing, Bakken, Benzene, butane, chloride, chloroform, chromium, drill pad, fracking fluid, fracking wastewater, Marcellus, methane, North Dakota, propane, Schilke, shale gas, shale oil, strontium, sulfates, toluene, well testing
After drilling began just over the property line of Jacki Schilke’s ranch in the northwestern corner of North Dakota, in the heart of the state’s booming Bakken Shale, cattle began limping, with swollen legs and infections. Cows quit producing milk for their calves, they lost from 60 to 80 pounds in a week and their tails mysteriously dropped off. Eventually, five animals died, according to Schilke.
Ambient air testing by a certified environmental consultant detected elevated levels of benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and xylene – and well testing revealed high levels of sulfates, chromium, chloride and strontium. Schilke said she moved her herd upwind and upstream from the nearest drill pad.
via Livestock falling ill in fracking regions | Center for Investigative Reporting.
From February:
The Pennsylvania farmers I spoke with have lost cows, calves, a horse, a couple dozen chickens. Many of the animals succumb in the same way: seizure-like symptoms, gasping for breath and a quick wasting away. A Rottweiler and a Dalmatian also fell ill and died.
Gives new meaning to the term ‘tail risk.’
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, crude oil, demand destruction, energy, fracking, IEA, KSA, mbd, oil consumption, oil production, Our Finite World, refinery gain, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian oil production, shale gas, shale oil, tight gas, tight oil, Tvberg, Tverberg, unconventional oil, US oil production, WEO, World Energy Outlook
The happy talk on future production is crazier than ever in the latest IEA World Energy Outlook, but there are also some stunningly pessimistic predictions buried inside. Wild!
For instance: The US will become number one oil producuh again and rediscover our lost oil-producing prowess with about 11 million barrels/day (Yay!) — which must mean Saudi Arabia won’t approach IEA’s previous prediction for that country of roughly 15 mbd output (Ooof). And the predicted exporter status of the US (Yay!) relies as much on a huge drop in consumption as it does on increases in production (Ooof). So it’s a bit of a sad day in IEA land, where consumption always went up, up, up.
From Tverberg:
The International Energy Agency (IEA) provides unrealistically high oil forecasts in its new 2012 World Energy Outlook (WEO). It claims, among other things, that the United States will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020, and will become a net oil exporter by 2030.
Figure 1. Author’s interpretation of IEA Forecast of Future US Oil Production under “New Policies” Scenario, based on information provided in IEA’s 2012 World Energy Outlook.
Figure 1 shows that this increase comes solely from the expected rise in tight oil production and natural gas liquids. The idea that we will become an exporter in later years occurs despite falling production, because “demand” will drop so much.
Note that IEA and other maniacs add NGLs, biodiesel and even ‘refinery gain’ to the US oil production number, in a crude attempt to fool y’all.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, energy, fracking, good cop-bad cop, jobs, LNG, LNG exports, LNG trade, Natural gas, natural gas trade movements, Obomney, OMG, RBAC, Robama, shale gas, tight gas, trade deficit
“We are confident that either one would be supportive of LNG exports,” Cooper told Rigzone.
U.S. LNG imports, which peaked at nearly 2.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2007, have fallen substantially as the growth in North American gas production due to shale gas, according to an Oct. 18 report by RBAC Inc., a company that develops and licenses management decision support systems for the energy industry. As a result, LNG facility backers are now seeking to outfit existing U.S. LNG import facilities with liquefaction equipment to ship LNG overseas.
Proponents say U.S. LNG exports will benefit the United States by creating construction jobs, and generate revenue to reduce the U.S. trade deficit through LNG sales and federal, state and local government tax revenues.
via RIGZONE – Romney, Obama Seen Favoring U.S. LNG Exports.
Know what else creates jobs and generates revenues? Cheap domestic gas. Exporting gas which would otherwise be flooding the U.S. market would raise the price for Americans. This would probably destroy a lot more jobs than would be created to build and maintain LNG terminals. The job-creation argument goes out the window.
In the meantime, the negative consequences of energy production would accrue right here in America.
Are western Americans willing to sacrifice their water so international companies can frack their shale gas and ship it to China? Robomney bets yes.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chesapeake, Chesapeake Energy, China, energy, energy independence, energy security, Natural gas, shale gas, shale oil, Sinopec Fu Chengyu, tight gas
All part of America’s new ‘energy security.’
Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec Corp, was in Oklahoma last week to explore the possibility of a bid for a shale gas project, which is owned by Chesapeake Energy, the second largest shale gas producer in the US, Reuters reported.
via China's Sinopec eyes shale gas assets in US | China Economic Review.
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: Uncategorized | Tags: Clean Air Act, directional drilling, EPA, fracking, green completions, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, methane, Natural gas, shale gas, shale plays, tight gas, tight oil, VOCs
From an EPA press release:
During the first phase, until January 2015, owners and operators must either flare their emissions or use emissions reduction technology called “green completions,” technologies that are already widely deployed at wells. In 2015, all new fractured wells will be required to use green completions. …
An estimated 13,000 new and existing natural gas wells are fractured or re-fractured each year. As those wells are being prepared for production, they emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to smog formation, and air toxics, including benzene and hexane, which can cause cancer and other serious health effects. In addition, the rule is expected to yield a significant environmental co-benefit by reducing methane, the primary constituent of natural gas. Methane, when released directly to the atmosphere, is a potent greenhouse gas—more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
I’ll keep the line above as it was typed into the page’s description by some agency PR person, because that alone tells you all you need to know about the EPA.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carbon, energy, fracking, methane, methane leakage, Natural gas, natural gas production, PNAS, radiative forcing, shale gas
Alvarez, Pacala, Winebrake, Chameides and Hamburg, “Greater focus needed on methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sceinces of the United States of America, 2012.
Full article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/02/1202407109.full.pdf+html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cheniere, energy, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, liquefied natural gas, LNG, Natural gas, natural gas exports, shale gas, tight gas
Energy independence? Not so much.
The government may decide as soon as next week on Cheniere’s request to build a $10 billion Louisiana plant that would be the largest in the U.S. to liquefy gas and load it onto ocean-going tankers. Regulators will discuss the project April 19. Cheniere’s shares rose as much as 11 percent in New York.
via LNG Export Plant Verges on U.S. Approval Amid Shale Glut – Bloomberg.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alaska, deepwater, energy, fracking, GOM, Gulf of Mexico, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, North Slope, Prudhoe Bay, shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, unconventional oil
From EIA. Prudhoe Bay also “reversed the decline in domestic oil production” at one point.
click to enlarge
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: fracking, hydraulic fracturing, Marcellus, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania fracking law, shale gas, shale oil, tight gas, tight oil, Tom Corbett
And the public at large of course. “Non-disclosure agreement.” According to this report anyway.
… If a company does release information about what is used, health care professionals are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that not only forbids them from warning the community of water and air pollution that may be caused by fracking, but which also forbids them from telling their own patients what the physician believes may have led to their health problems. A strict interpretation of the law would also forbid general practitioners and family practice physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreement and learn the contents of the “trade secrets” from notifying a specialist about the chemicals or compounds, thus delaying medical treatment.
The clauses are buried on pages 98 and 99 of the 174-page bill, which was initiated and passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law in February by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
via Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians | Truthout.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Carrizo Springs, Eagle Ford, energy, energy production, fracking, fracking and water, hydraulic fracturing, Natural gas, shale gas, shale oil, shale plays, Texas Railroad Commission, tight gas, tight oil, WSJ
via http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204528204577009930222847246.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: drilling, frac, frack, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracking, Natural gas, regulation, shale gas, shale oil, shale play
…with one day left in comment period.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken Shale, Barnett Shale, drilling rigs, dry gas, Eagle Ford, energy, gas drilling, LNG, Marcellus, methane, Natural gas, production, rig counts, shale gas, shale plays, tight gas
From a detailed article at Rigzone. http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=113890&hmpn=1
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: disposal well, earthquakes, frac, fracking, fracking waste, hydraulic fracturing, Marcellus, Ohio, shale gas, shale oil, Youngstown
Youngstown Injection Well Stays Shut After Earthquake – NYTimes.com.
Operations halted after the latest quake was pinpointed just below the disposal well.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken, James Hamilton, keystone xl pipeline, oil sands, pipeline, shale gas
Econbrowser: Costs and benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Eagle Ford shale, frac, oil, oil shale, shale gas, shale oil, Texas, tight gas, tight oil, tracking, water
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204528204577009930222847246.html
Piece in WSJ on oil versus water in Texas. The inconvenient reality of hydro-fracking. The article itself claims 6 million gallons needed for each Frac in the Eagle Ford. (The article is behind the paywall.)
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 