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The Mysterious Explosion In U.S. Oil Reserves
Investor's Business Daily ^ | 04/15/2015 | Staff

Posted on 04/16/2015 4:15:29 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer

Energy: Since 2008, domestic oil and gas production has exploded, and so have the nation's oil and gas reserves. How is that even possible? Weren't we supposed to be running out of oil and gas 40 years ago?

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


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KEYWORDS: energy; oil
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To: MrB
I also think that the earth is constantly making more, and am hoping that's the case since my family has considerable mineral rights on land in west Texas that has been producing on and off now for 50 years.

It's nice to think that 500 years from now my descendants might still be getting royalties off the land my great grand parents homesteaded.

21 posted on 04/16/2015 6:32:43 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, & R)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Hardly. Oil and gas come from source rocks in basins. To suggest otherwise shows a belief in the tooth fairy. Read a paper on organic geochemistry and you will see where hydrocarbons come from. Try wikipedia.


22 posted on 04/16/2015 6:32:44 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: crusty old prospector

Nice.
I’ll stand behind my 35+ years in the O&G industry as well as my BSChem in opposition to the modern construct of “peak oil”.

“Gaia” [spit] continuously generates petro-hydrocarbons.


23 posted on 04/16/2015 6:38:22 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

< snip >
But starting in 2008, domestic oil production exploded. By 2014, the U.S. produced 894 million more barrels of oil than in 2008. The trend is expected to continue. In fact, the Energy Department says that by 2028, net oil imports will fall to zero for the first time since the 1950s.

And yet, over these same years, proved oil reserves have been climbing — they’re up 78% from 2008 to 2013.

How can this possibly be the case?

It turns out that most people don’t know what “proved oil reserves” means. And green-energy advocates like Obama are happy to keep it that way.

Proved oil reserves count only the oil that companies are currently drilling for in existing fields. So it makes sense that reserves and production move in lockstep.

Fracking technology has placed vast supplies of oil within reach, expanding both production and reserves. And even more will be available once better technology makes producing them economically viable.

None of this has anything to do with Obama’s energy policies. These gains took place mostly on private lands, while Obama thwarted drilling on public lands and pumped subsidies into wind and solar power.

When it comes to oil, the only thing in short supply these days is honesty from green-energy boosters.


24 posted on 04/16/2015 6:41:54 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave (The democ"RAT"ic party preys on the ignorant..!)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Show me a oil and gas field that is not either within or along the periphery of a basin. Go drill a well in Iowa or the middle of Australia and I will drink every drop of oil you come up with.


25 posted on 04/16/2015 6:50:12 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: crusty old prospector

How is it there is oil and gas at or above the arctic circle? Seems to me you need a lot of organic material to “rot” in order for crude to form. That implies lush jungles and warm oceans.....


26 posted on 04/16/2015 6:56:52 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: crusty old prospector

PS: There is a moon of Saturn that has a liquid ocean of methane.


27 posted on 04/16/2015 6:57:41 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: All


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28 posted on 04/16/2015 6:59:23 AM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: central_va

It was once a basin. Hence, the deposition of sand, shale, and limestone.


29 posted on 04/16/2015 6:59:56 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: crusty old prospector

Where did the organic material come from up there?


30 posted on 04/16/2015 7:01:35 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Methane is common in the universe. It also comes out of orifices of mammals but I don’t claim that is how it was trapped in the earth.


31 posted on 04/16/2015 7:01:37 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: central_va

It was formerly at a more southern latitude. The plates, they are a’changin. Antarctica was once a basin as well.


32 posted on 04/16/2015 7:03:09 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: central_va

The Upper Triassic Shublik Formation is a prolific source rock for North Slope hydrocarbons, containing an average total organic carbon (TOC) content near Prudhoe Bay of 5.6%. Approximately 32 billion barrels of Shublik-sourced oil are estimated to have migrated and accumulated in North Slope reservoirs located between the Colville and Canning Rivers, assuming a 10% migration and accumulation efficiency. Potential also exists within the Prudhoe Bay Field for the Shublik to be a producing reservoir.


33 posted on 04/16/2015 7:05:28 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: bestintxas; All
Yes the Peak oil hoax ran for decades and said 40 years ago that we would run out of oil by now (or even much sooner than by now). “We will run out of oil soon so we have to switch to alternative fuel sources NOW and drop the ‘evil’ oil” . sound familiar ? yes now Peak oil hoax replaced by the global warming hoax “drop the evil oil and replace with alternatives because oil is destroying the planet with global warming”

the global warming hoax is still running and again what is to blame ? the oil industry is the fake threat again.

And this is our government and news media lying to us again and again and again but democrats and many others trust and believe in the media and government

Notice how the problem is always oil or something that affects the whole economy like the Internet that the government has to change(internet with net neutrality FCC regulations). The goal is communism , government control of every aspect of the economy and every aspect of our lives

34 posted on 04/16/2015 7:11:27 AM PDT by Democrat_media (Obama illegally got his FCC gestapo to impose SOROS' regulations on Internet)
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To: crusty old prospector

Goblygook.


35 posted on 04/16/2015 7:14:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: crusty old prospector

‘Twould seem we are “talking past” each other here. That’s OK.

I do not argue that O&G can be extracted from non-porous/impermeable formations (basalt, granite, etc). I do posit that O&G migrate to ‘production’ formations (sedimentary) by virtue of both sub-surface pressures, tectonic convection and gravity.
To understand the mechanics one could always look to aquifers, salt-domes and brine-formations. Nature abhors a vacuum; porosity SHALL be filled.

To this date in time, we have extracted more petro-hydrocarbons from the Earth than can be accounted for by the estimated carbon-based lifeform population (pre-historic life, fossiuls, dinosaurs) or the Flood. (To my understanding, those are mutually exclusive and, thereby, not a “combinable” total.)

What then is the source of our on-going production?


36 posted on 04/16/2015 7:19:07 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

We have a lot of oil , but it is hard to get and costs more, if God would have put it all in a big lake on the surface we would have squandered it a long time ago.


37 posted on 04/16/2015 7:21:38 AM PDT by Big Horn (Rebuild the GOP to a conservative party)
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To: crusty old prospector
I'd almost agree, but the Persian Gulf oil states are spending a fortune on desalinization plants. As such, that makes fracking more viable than you think in that part of the world. Also, they can use gas injection to revive many old oilfields, too.
38 posted on 04/16/2015 7:25:03 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: woweeitsme

Ours also. Prices around here have jumped over 30 cents a gallon in past couple-three weeks.


39 posted on 04/16/2015 7:37:01 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (MARANATHA, MARANATHA, Come quickly LORD Jesus!!! Father send thy Son!! Its Time!)
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To: central_va; crusty old prospector

No, not gobbledygook. His assessment of that production basin is correct but please note that “Crusty” indicates “migrated” to the basin; to which I agree.

The question is, from whence is the source of the petro-hydrocarbons to migrate? Does Crusty believe that it is the decay of carbon-based life-forms? We’ll allow him to answer.

If so, would not the known average percentage of decay of carbon-based life forms need to be evaluated?

The death of a carbon-based human life form weighing 200 pounds results in -at best- 2 pounds of carbon-based material (note, the human body is approximately 90% water and bones are calcium).
Those assumed 2 pounds, when undergoing the pressure and temperature conversion to petro-hydrocarbon (assuming an ideal of 100% conversion) would likely provide under 0.1 pounds of recoverable oil (best scientific estimate).
A single gallon of WTI crude weighs around 7.2 pounds, possibly representing the decay of 72 humans.

When extrapolated to the assumed history of life on Earth, we must ask, is this sensible to assume “decay” as the genesis/single source of O&G production as we know it today? I leave the answer to you.


40 posted on 04/16/2015 7:38:40 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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