The oil was two miles down and trapped in tightly packed horizontal layers of shale that were easy to miss with conventional drilling.
Is this the same 'shale oil' that Jimmah predicted would be our savior from the clutches OPEC??
I'd hate to see that the ijit was right - just a few decades off. If so the moonbats will go nuts, they'll want him on Mt. Rushmore.
Is this the same ‘shale oil’ that Jimmah predicted would be our savior from the clutches OPEC??
No. This oil is in shale rock but it can be extracted much easier than the shale oil Jimmuh was talking about. It’s still an expensive process but once they fracture the shale rock the oil flows as it would in a normal well. The shale oil Jimmuh was talking about either has to be mined and processed or heated in the ground over the course of years to extract the oil. Two entirely different animals here.
NO.
The article is full of misconceptions, the oil is not in the shale, but came from there. It is only produced from the shale economically when the shale is severely farctured, usually it is produced from layers which are relatively conventional tight but porous reservoirs near the shale.
Other misconceptions:
The oil is dark green, not honey colored, at least in the 50 wells I have worked. The foam is orange or light green, depending on where you are.
You don't sell your mineral rights if you want royalties, you lease them, otherwise the new owner gets the royalties. You got paid for the mineral rights.
If you wait to get to the formation to turn to hroizontal you will end up about 410 feet too low, and the chances of you getting enough wellbore in zone to pay for the well that way are about zip. You have to anticipate the depth of the formation within a few tens of feet and generally make corrections along the way to get in and stay in the producing strata. The rock layers do not stay level, either, but are folded as a rule, so you have to stay with the formation's structural changes to stay in it as well as you go laterally.