Posted on 06/10/2012 4:00:58 PM PDT by Recon Dad
The Bakken shale is a huge expanse of oil-bearing rock that lies underneath Northern Dakota and Montana. Oil production in the Bakken has grown from just 60,000 barrels per day (BPD) five years ago, to 500,000 bpd now. It is predicted that the formation holds more than 24 billion barrels of oil, and that given enough rigs it could produce more than a million bpd by 2020 and continue that level of production for half a century.
The Bakken shale play is one of the biggest in the US, but is absolutely dwarfed by a shale play in Russia. The Bazhenov is located in Western Siberia, and according to Oswals Clint, Sanford Bernstein’s lead international oil analyst, it “covers 2.3 million square kilometers or 570 million acres, which is the size of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico combined;” an area 80 times bigger than the Bakken.
The region which is covered by the Bazhenov has many cracks and fractures which could make its oil flow more readily, and therefore production much cheaper. A couple of test wells have been drilled in the region which operated at 400 bpd; the same as an average Bakken well.
News of the Bazhenov may be new to many of us, but geologists have actually been studying it for at least 20 years, however it is only in the last few years that the technology and expertise necessary to drill the oil has been developed.
ExxonMobil and Statoil have agreed to start joint venture operations in the region with the Russian, state-owned Rosneft in an attempt to secure access to the Bazhenov. Exxon made a recent statement which confirmed the agreement “to jointly develop tight oil production technologies in Western Siberia.”
Oswald Clint warned that oil companies will face challenges of drilling in the region as during the summer the weather in Siberia warms and softens the ground enough to prevent drilling. Although if 300 rigs can be quickly deployed he believes that by 2020 the Bazhenov play could be producing one million bpd.
But seriously I have read where the better off young Chinese males,not rich just working middle class, have resorted to taking Filipino,Laotian,or Cambodian wives. I've also read where Chinese workers in Africa have taken Africans as wives.
I keep expecting a really big African expedition. Most of the other likely places would have too much possibility of being too painful militarily. Africa? Who would go to war for any of the African countries against a Chinese occupation?
I was wondering about that as well. It could be as far west as just east of the Ural Mountains. Which would put it a long way from China, especially the heavily populated/developed parts.
Well the Chinese are investing heavily in Africa. The Chinese are buying up mineral rights and laying down the groundwork for a very large African infrastructure that will support their big African expedition. I wonder if there is a Chinese Kurtz out there?
I told my kids that before I die the world will be awash in oil again.
Nope. The Ching Empire ruled what is now Manchuria and Mongolia, and possibly a little way to the north, but you can't say it "ruled Siberia."
Well, you can say it, but that doesn't make it true. :)
The Yuan (Mongol) Empire ruled much of what is now Siberia, or as much of it as they cared to bother with, but that was China being ruled by the same foreign power, not China ruling Siberia.
This should put watermelon enviros in a quandary regarding the “dangers of fracking”, eh?
Wasn’t it just a year ago the Libs were warning about the end of oil...
There are many who believe or want US to believe that PEAK OIL is real and that we're very close to having used up all those dead dinosaurs and organic matter deposits. What was a common belief over the last 150 years, that crude comes from "fossil" material, I believe is now being debunked. Maybe Recon Dad can speak to what many of us consider to be a more scientifically sound theory: Abiotic Oil.
(theory suggests that crude oil is the result of naturally occurring and possibly ongoing geological processes. In its simplest form, the theory is that carbon present in the magma beneath the crust reacts with hydrogen to form methane as well as a raft of other mainly alkane hydrocarbons. The reactions are more complicated than this, with several intermediate stages. Particular mineral rocks such as granite and other silicon based rocks act as catalysts, which speed up the reaction without actually becoming involved or consumed in the process.)
theory suggests that crude oil is the result of naturally occurring and possibly ongoing geological processes.
.....I believe in the oil fairy and he’s been a very busy little guy!
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