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People often ask how long we should expect the current boom in shale oil and natural gas that is happening in Texas and throughout much of the United States to last. The correct answer today will be some variation on the theme: "A very long time."

Energy Companies Seek Ways To Capture Natural Gas From North Dakota Oil Boom By Meagan Clark on February 26 2014 6:04 AM Share this article Collapsing natural gas prices were an unexpected boon for North Dakota's shale oil bonanza, easing a shortage of fracking crews that had tempered the biggest U.S. oil boom in a generation. Reuters The oil pumped out of the Bakken Shale fields in North Dakota brings natural gas above ground too, but the state doesn’t have the infrastructure yet to store or move the gas to processors. So about 30 percent of the natural gas...

The US Energy Boom: More than Just an Oil Story December 23, 2013 by Frank Holmes Leave a Comment As we come to the end of 2013, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the biggest resources stories of the year. One that immediately comes to mind is the U.S. energy resurgence and its tremendous effect on oil and gas.Only a few years ago, we were contemplating the supply constraints facing the petroleum industry, as many major oil fields around the world were declining in production. Now, with the disruptive technology in shale oil and gas, we may...

Written by Tom Vulcan  |December 27, 2013 Innovation Behind Drilling Efficiency & Well Productivity Fueling America’s Energy Boom Fewer rigs but more wells per rig proving powerful combination, among other new tricks of the trade. In the world of fracking, the last few months have been significant on a number of counts. Two, in particular, were indicative of just how important fracking really has become in the U.S.First, at the end of October, the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration commenced publication of its new “Drilling Productivity Report” (DPR). Initially covering six production basins (which, in 2011-2012, accounted for nearly all...

Continental basks in shale glory The company leads production of the Bakken shale of North Dakota and Montana The US shale revolution is “the best thing going on in the world since the computer chip”, says Harold Hamm, chairman and chief executive of Continental Resources. “Look at what’s going on today, how the world’s changing. It’s the best thing for America, in my opinion, in 40 years. It’s completely transformative.” No one embodies that transformation better than Hamm. Continental, which has its origins in a company he founded back in 1967, is now the leading producer in the Bakken shale...

Two recent well-respected and long-running oil industry publications have proclaimed that booming production in North America, particularly in the U.S. shale fields, will hit a plateau as early as 2016 and that production declines will follow soon thereafter. Last week the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) set the decline date sometime before 2020 and this week the International Energy Agency (IEA) set the 2016 plateau date. The boom in U.S. production is set to displace Russia as the top oil-producing country by next year. Had you said this to anyone five years ago, you might have been laughed out...

While Texas and North Dakota's boom in oil production have been well-publicized, five other western U.S. states made a notable contribution to the growth in U.S. oil production since 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Tuesday. Onshore oil production, including crude oil and lease condensate, grew by over 2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd), or 64 percent, in the U.S. Lower 48 from February 2010 to February 2013. Production in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Texas' Eagle Ford play and Permian Basin outpaced other regions. However, gains in other Lower 48 states added up...

CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper company is selling a product that it believes could address one of Wyoming’s burning energy issues — and business is booming. Moser Energy Systems, a 40-year-old company in west Casper, has since 2010 built and sold a special brand of engine to oil field operators. The engine changes the way operators deal with unwanted natural gas from oil wells, a resource normally burned off in a process called flaring. Instead of burning that gas solely to prevent emissions, oil operators can use a natural gas-powered Moser engine to generate electricity for their well pad —...

There's an awful lot that's stale in the debate on government energy policy. Some stale arguments are nevertheless valid: It's dangerous to depend heavily on Middle Eastern oil. Others have increasingly been seen as dubious: that global warming caused by human activity will result in catastrophe. There's stale talk about federal and state laws that promised great change but have produced very little. Electric cars, even with subsidies, are no larger a part of the auto fleet than they were 100 years ago.

A report by the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources indicates there may be nearly as much recoverable oil from the Three Forks formation as in the Bakken shale. While there is more total oil available in the Bakken, a greater percentage can be recovered from the Three Forks formation, which is now considered a separate formation from the Bakken. "It's hard to argue that you can improve on a 99 percent success rate, but in fact we can improve on that because we now have two layers," said Lynn Helms, the department's director. Of the estimated 20 billion barrels...