Posted on 12/03/2013 5:26:20 AM PST by thackney
“Oil executive Harold Hamm, who made billions tapping the vast Bakken oil field in North Dakota before other companies saw the potential, sounded a pessimistic tone about whether the industry will develop California’s Monterey Shale formation, which is estimated to have possibly five times more oil.
“It’s just been tough to break the code on how to get that,” said Hamm, founder and CEO of Continental Resources, an independent oil company with the largest footprint in the Bakken oil fields in Western North Dakota. “Everybody thought they could and it hasn’t worked out.”
He added that the field, which is located in the San Joaquin Valley in central California, has not yet matured to a form that companies could develop with today’s technologies.”
And if you think that the Sierra Club and other greenies are going to allow any real development, I have a bridge to sell you.
Again, the work has already started. There are multiple companies that already have wells in the Monterey. It has been technically challenging in ways different from the Eagle Ford and Bakken.
Yep. If you look at the hwy infrastructure, the only roads heavy equipment can use is scenic Hwy 1, Hwy 68 to Salinas, and Hwy 101 which runs North and south connecting to 1 and 68.
Progress is slow, but there are about 3 dozen rigs working the Monterey Shale plays.
Shale requires tracking or some other form of making the shale liquid enough to flow…. tell me where exactly are these so called working wells? You can’t mean the rigs off of Santa Barbara that have been shut down since the last century.
And by the way drilling means next to nothing if you aren’t getting anything out
The Monterey, like Eagle Ford and Bakken, are not retorting the shale to release liquid. The are producing the liquid already released from the shale via geological process. The vast majority of hydrocarbons is still locked in the shale and requires heat to release, but the 2~5% that is already released is in the billions of barrels.
The Monterey shale field is 100% onshore. It overlaps a lot of the Bakersfield area.
This bit of fluff from the oil industry is about an area that has produced oil for more than 100 years. It borders the Kern oil fields. You also notice from the article that there is NO mention of actual tracking or otherwise dealing with the shale to give up its oil.
Colorado Shale fields were in this same state in the 70s. Much was claimed, much was ‘started’….nothing was produced and all major players have pulled out.
Do not kid yourselves. California is NOT North Dakota. This will never come to fruition EVEN IF the technology were there
“Shale requires tracking or some other form of making the shale liquid enough to flow…. tell me where exactly are these so called working wells? You can’t mean the rigs off of Santa Barbara that have been shut down since the last century.
And by the way drilling means next to nothing if you aren’t getting anything out”
There are bridges in Arizona that can also be sold for all those anxious to throw money into the Monterey Shale.
The Monterey takes a very thick oil column and/or extensive natural fractures to make it commercially attractive.
Reason is simple physics: liquids do not move well in this type of rock unless assisted by fractures. That is the secret to Bakken’s success.
One cannot make money attempting to duplicate fractures provided by Mother Nature. Just too expensive to accomplish.
The commercial success stories are few and far between, mostly offshore with thick oil columns assisted by natural fractures, and some onshore with local fracturing complexity.
Most of the oil produced in California over the years is believed to have its origin in the Monterey Formation and has migrated to more permeable layers, which has given rise to some of the nation’s largest oil fields. These large fields, including Midway-Sunset, Belridge South, Kern River, Cymric, and Wilmington, are situated in the southern half of California (although oil production is found in other parts of the state, as well). About 77 percent of California’s crude production is from the state’s top 10 fields. The single highest producing county in the state is Kern County, which alone accounts for approximately three-fourths of the state’s crude oil output.
http://oilindependents.org/the-story-of-california-crude/
After dropping to less than 20 active rigs in late 2009, activity in California has surged to more than 50 rigs, according to Baker Hughes. Many of those rigs are pursuing traditional production, but shale development has been active as well, particularly in the Monterey formation itself. While much of this activity is done through vertical and directional drilling, the state has also recently experienced steady horizontal drilling since 2011. Horizontal wells tend to run deeper than other wells in the state. The Monterey formation’s geology is varied and compartmentalized, but is based on diatomaceous material (the skeletons of microscopic diatoms) that varies from low-permeability diatomite closer to the surface to a more fractured material at greater depths to a quartz phase at the deepest ranges. It presents its own unique challenges, and specific techniques used elsewhere may not be directly applicable in the Monterey. This may be one reason California’s shale potential is more latent when compared to many states around the country.
And again I suggest to you that California oil production is well known and has been hampered consistently over the last half century. People have blocked expansion off shore. They have block expansion in the Bakersfield area.
How many barrels have these 3 dozen rigs produced to date???
You used the word tracking again. Do you mean hydraulic fracturing or something else.
It is on the edges of the Kern Oil Fields discovered in the 19th century. Oil has been produced in California for over a hundred years. We do not disagree on that. Your little sniper says nothing that I didn’t already acknowledge. What has not been shown is anything productive from actual shale rock. Californians routinely do things against their own best interest. They shut down power plants. They institute new air resources board regulations. They block off shore drilling. They shut down existing sites.
You can hope all you want. The truth is the left in California will kill this off way before the bullet train gasps its last breath
Do you understand that the falling oil production rate in California finally bottomed out and began a tiny climb?
No doubt they are behind most everyone others. And plenty of folks will drag down the progress and get in the way. But the increase in production has started, following the increase in drilling rigs that already started.
California Field Production of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPCA2&f=M
darned autofill…. FRACKING FRACKING that’s what I meant to type.
Thank you for bringing to my attention
They opened up old wells in the Kern Field.
Please quit hyperventilating over this. You do not seem to understand the politics of California at all. You can throw out oil reports all you want. The logging industry in California was killed by the greenies. I already cited the manufacturing losses in Silicon Valley (and through out the state). California is a home for wayward Mexicans and very rich folks from either Hollyweird or Silicon Valley.
Those who happen to be there because they have been there before things went so friggin nuts know that things are getting worse not better.
Wrong. Venoco for example has been producing oil from the Monterey since the late 1990s. The flow rates don't match the believe potential, but it has been going on for a while.
Example:
http://investor.venocoinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=193733&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1875709&highlight=
During the third quarter, Venoco successfully completed a well to a probable location in a separate geologic structure, known as Coal Oil Point, located to the northeast of Platform Holly in the South Ellwood field. The Coal Oil Point structure has two separate fault blocks. The well path of the probable well resulted in the intersection of the northern fault block in only the lowermost Monterey zone (M7), whereas the southern fault block was intersected in only the uppermost Monterey zone (M1). The well was completed in two sections, the first of which was in the northern fault block and was wet and the second of which was in the southern fault block and was successful. The well was on production for approximately 15 days prior to the annual maintenance shutdown at Platform Holly and produced at an average rate of approximately 220 barrels of oil per day over that period. Subsequent to the shutdown, production from the well declined to an average rate of approximately 100 barrels of oil per day.
By the way, I've done design and construction work for oil/gas in California. It has been a decade since the last time, but I have some understanding. I've been involved in getting construction and operation permits (limited role, more engineering/design/construction/startup)
No you really don’t. Those who live there or who have just recently left know. You do not.
and by the by the ND Bracken field uses fracking
The application of hydraulic fracturing technology caused a boom in Bakken production since 2000. By the end of 2010 oil production rates had reached 458,000 barrels (72,800 m3) per day outstripping the pipeline capacity to ship oil out of the Bakken.[9][10] The production technology gain has led a veteran industry insider to declare that the USGS estimates are too low.[11]
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