Posted on 03/08/2017 10:48:06 AM PST by bananaman22
The dynamics of the oil industry have changed dramatically since the beginning of 2010. Because of the U.S. shale revolution, the U.S. is now a country with oil production rivaling that of Saudi Arabia and Russia. The fundamental shift in oil power has come as a direct result of investment in the technology of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of tight oil formations in the U.S. In 2010, U.S. production from tight oil shale formations were marginal in comparison to total U.S. oil production; however, tight oil now makes up 52 percent of all U.S. oil production.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Using the shale extraction technology puts MANY parts of the world, which had not previously been oil-producing regions, into the position of being able to supply much of their OWN domestic needs, thereby reducing their balance-of-payments problems, and bringing a more realistic pricing structure to the extraction and transportation of petroleum products.
Sorry, snowflakes, but the business of business is business, not blindly following the so very high-minded but economically infeasible “environmental protection” which protects very little if anything about the environment.
What they can learn is that every time they jack their prices up too high, we will find ways to produce our own. Unless we have a Democrat in office, then we are screwed.
The defining event of my working career was the 1973 Arab oil embargo.
It took 40 years neutralize the power of the sand countries in oil, energy and money.
Shale oil and gas production, not wind-solar-nuclear-coal-fusion did it.
Other countries don’t have a big window to get into the fracking game. US oil producers may have reduced their costs in 5 years so as to be profitable at $40@ barrel. More importantly, after 2020 electric car production volumes will start scaling upward to over 1 million cars annually. If there is any battery technology break—those volumes will go higher.
The co-originator of the lithium battery John Goodenough is still making improvements at the age of 94.
Other alkali metals can be substituted for lithium, battery life can be extended far beyond what is typically available now, hazard issues for fire are dealt with, works well down to -20 C temperatures, and stores three times as much energy as currently available products. What’s not to like?
https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/goodenough-introduces-new-battery-technology
agree. but that update won’t be ready for a couple years.
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