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Could Monterey Shale Save California?
Investor's Business Daily ^ | February 5, 2013 | IBD EDITORIALS

Posted on 02/05/2013 4:26:07 PM PST by raptor22

Energy: The former Golden State is floating in debt, even as it sits on two-thirds of America's shale oil reserves locked in a formation four times the size of the one that sparked North Dakota's economic boom.

North Dakota is now the largest oil producer in the country after Texas with a monthly oil output of about 20 million barrels. North Dakota's oil boom accounts for 11% of U.S. oil production, and it is the impetus behind the state's $3.8 billion surplus and an unemployment rate of just 3.2%, the lowest in the nation.

California is not running a surplus, but it is sitting on a lot more oil than is contained in the Bakken shale formation North Dakota straddles. Covering 1,750 square miles from southern to central California, the Monterey shale formation has untapped deposits estimated at 15.4 billion barrels, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

Until recently, the complex geology of the formation has made exploration and extraction prohibitively expensive.

But as with oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota and natural gas extracted from the Marcellus formation in the Northeast, technological advances have unleashed a bounty of riches, pushing proven reserves upward and smashing the myth of peak oil.

The key technology behind the boom is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which fluids are injected into the porous rock under high pressure to fracture the rock and release the oil or natural gas, which can then be pumped to the surface.

Combined with horizontal drilling, great stores of energy can be released with a minimal footprint.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; US: California; US: North Dakota
KEYWORDS: bakken; california; energy; fracking; ibd; ibdfracking; ibdibdenergy; marcellus; montereyshale; shale
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To: Political Junkie Too

At some point in the next four years or perhaps a little longer if the Left things they have sufficient control of the voting machines, I expect nationalization of energy so that the Government can get the total income from it. Of course that revenue will begin an incessant decline at that point as Enco et al become PEMEXUSA.


21 posted on 02/05/2013 6:08:07 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: Political Junkie Too

At some point in the next four years or perhaps a little longer if the Left thinks they have sufficient control of the voting machines, I expect nationalization of energy so that the Government can get the total income from it. Of course that revenue will begin an incessant decline at that point as Enco et al become PEMEXUSA.


22 posted on 02/05/2013 6:08:25 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: raptor22

Dear fellow Friends of the Shales: for far too long, the innocent shales have been locked up underground! It is time for them to be set free! Free the shales! Free the shales! Free the shales!


23 posted on 02/05/2013 6:17:54 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: spokeshave

The high speed rail (to nowhere) runs right through it. Hmm...


24 posted on 02/05/2013 6:27:09 PM PST by Selene
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To: raptor22
Could Monterey Shale Save California?

Until blatant stupidity and/or incompetence is completely excised from elected and bureaucratic government, NOTHING CAN SAVE CALIFORNIA.

Is that stating the obvious?

25 posted on 02/05/2013 6:34:29 PM PST by publius911 (Look for the Union Label -- then buy something else)
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To: bitterohiogunclinger

“Does anyone seriously believe that Kalifornia would allow oil or natural gas to be drilled for? They’d sit in the dark roasting or freezing to death before they’d even consider the idea.”

Absolutely correct in your assessment.

However, Kalifornia won’t _be_ Kalifornia forever. Eventually it may become part of a “Greater Mexico” (at least the southern half).

If that happens, the influence of the gringos will mean nuthin’, and the drills will drill.


26 posted on 02/05/2013 8:02:22 PM PST by Road Glide
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To: Vince Ferrer
California produces about as much as Texas right now,

These figures would indicate otherwise. Do you have a source that contradicts this?

27 posted on 02/05/2013 8:43:51 PM PST by Michael.SF. (Obama lied, Stevens died.)
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To: bitterohiogunclinger

What’s that quip:there’s nothing that concentrates the mind more than the thought of being hung in the morning. Even in California it gets close to dawn.


28 posted on 02/05/2013 10:47:39 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: Michael.SF.

And the potential production in Texas is huge. There’s a huge shale formation in the Permian Basin. My guess is that in the near future, Texas reserves will exceed those of the Persian Gulf.


29 posted on 02/05/2013 10:51:52 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: raptor22
Could Monterey Shale Save California?

I certainly hope not. As it is, Kali's current condition is a good case study in collectivism and mushy liberal feel-thinking as applied to policy. It would be a shame if something capitalistic showed up at the last minute and saved them in such a way that it made collectivist central planning look better than it really is. People are stupid. They need their lessons to be crystal clear with no possibility of confusion.

30 posted on 02/05/2013 11:20:51 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Vince Ferrer

California produces about a quarter of Texas Oil Production.

In Nov 2012 it was 2,139 MBPD to 533 MBPD.

On top of that Texas is climbing fast while California continues to fall in production rates.

Texas Field Production of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPTX2&f=M

California Field Production of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPCA2&f=M


31 posted on 02/06/2013 5:44:55 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Vince Ferrer
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

32 posted on 02/06/2013 5:48:01 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: raptor22

Look at where this shale is. Can you imagine the NIMBY screams? It'll never happen, no matter how bad CA's budget issues get.

33 posted on 02/06/2013 5:52:03 AM PST by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: bitterohiogunclinger; Road Glide
Does anyone seriously believe that Kalifornia would allow oil or natural gas to be drilled for?

While California throws up a lot of road blocks to oil/gas drilling, they have not completely shut it down. There are currently 32 rigs drilling for oil in the state, one of those is offshore near long beach. The links below show 34 but if you look on the map two are geothermal wells.

Rig Count by state
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/BHI/2187729679x0x632433/1D53425D-5782-4820-A7A4-422FF8466F4A/Rigs_by_State_020113.pdf

Interactive map of drilling rigs
http://gis.bakerhughesdirect.com/RigCounts/default2.aspx

34 posted on 02/06/2013 6:17:52 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Future Snake Eater

Interacting North America Current Drilling Map
http://gis.bakerhughesdirect.com/RigCounts/default2.aspx

Click on the above link and you will find 32 oil drilling rigs working in the general area.


35 posted on 02/06/2013 6:25:49 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Future Snake Eater
You are correct in that it will not happen as in the Bakken region, but the NIMBY syndrome will not come from those who live within the oval drawn, as that area is both desolate and more conservative then the rest of the state. The Nimby syndrome will emanate from the red areas:


36 posted on 02/06/2013 4:25:06 PM PST by Michael.SF. (Obama lied, Stevens died.)
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To: Michael.SF.
These figures would indicate otherwise. Do you have a source that contradicts this?

I was going from memory from something I read six months ago. I looked around the internet, but couldn't find anything like I had remembered, so I may have remembered it wrong.

37 posted on 02/06/2013 6:01:36 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer
Memory, they say that is the second thing to go as we age. The first of course is............ damn, I forgot.

;)

38 posted on 02/06/2013 6:38:54 PM PST by Michael.SF. (Obama lied, Stevens died.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Nope. Texas is in first place, North Dakota second. California is in the top five or six, though.


39 posted on 02/07/2013 6:51:42 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: spokeshave

A lot depends on who is doing the estimates. The EIA has been wildly inaccurate in the past, pump and dump stock hypesters have been worse, and the USGS tends to be conservative in their estimates (they have a scientific reputation to maintain, unlike the others) until given reason to revise those estimates upward. It was so with the Bakken with the USGS, but if I was going to be venturing capital, I’d take USGS estimates over the others in a heartbeat.


40 posted on 02/07/2013 6:56:11 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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