OIL

http://bakkenshale.net/bakkenshalemap.html ^

[philman_36]

Just an old Keyboard Cowboy...
Ain't we both.

[philman_36]

What’s your point?
Though I'm not the poster you queried I'll answer your question.
Neither of those sights perform their due diligence without a political bias.
They're tainted by ideology, as is most of Wikipedia.

[PIF]

I don't know if this estimate counts the Bakken Shale deposit or not.

The Congressional Research Service stated that the U.S. has tapped into only 13%, or 21 billion barrels of its oil reserves, with the other 87% still untouched.

Of the nearly 6 trillion barrels of oil known to exist, the US has 1.32 trillion of them - more than many counties combined, except Russia.

But the envorowackos, Zero and his fellow travelling Democrates want us to forgo using fossil fuels so they can regulate our country and our personal power usage by forcing us to use unstable sources like wind, solar, and biomass.

Also see this FR link: Wind power’s dirty secret: It has a carbon footprint

[Recon Dad]

Try and get a bit deeper into the numbers and you will see what the overall energy picture is here in the US. The world demands may be going up but here in the states it has been stagnant fro a few years.
The Bakken is old news that just keeps getting bigger. Google 3 forks, Sanish and see what you find. The technology is costly but coming down all the time and at $70 makes money.
Not much discussion in this article of other energy sources, like NG, which is the big play today.

As far as promoting wind and solar I will direct you to the article below.

Clean and green, the energy system we aspire to, is subsidized like no other energy source in history. By whom? Us, and our progeny. All energy has historically received some type of public support to even out the volatility of high and low price cycles. The Energy Information Agency of the U.S. government's Department of Energy reports that, for 2008, natural gas was subsidized 25 cents per megawatt hour of electricity produced, coal received 44 cents per megawatt hour, nuclear $1.59. Oil was not reported in these numbers since oil is hardly a factor in electricity production. However, oil benefits from a variety of tax subsidies for dry well expenses and royalty holidays dating from the $10-a-barrel oil days of the late 1990s, which the administration promises to rescind. At the same time in the same year, wind energy received public subsidy of $23.37 per megawatt hour; solar energy received $24.34. These numbers do not include the additional subsidies we taxpayers have been compelled to pay for wind, solar and biofuels through the stimulus plan, the 2010 budget and the 2011 framework budget. These subsidies help support 2 percent of today's energy system. Their proponents promise to double and double again the amounts of subsidized supply from clean and green with no commitment to ending subsidies. That's not a new energy system.

[VOA]

bump

[Brown Deer]

You haven’t answered my question. Please explain exactly what is tainted about what they have posted.

[M Kehoe]

Even though I live on the west coast now, I grew up on the east coast. So, I have one request. Please, please drill off the Atlantic coast of FL. Between Daytona and Ft. Lauderdale. I'm tired of cleaning up after swimming/boarding.

5.56mm

[Senator John Blutarski]

Recon Dad,

You seem to have a better than average grasp of the oil industry, so please permit me to toss a question ot two your way for comment from a source better informed than I.

When the calculus is performed to determine the cost of oil, is it conducted strictly from a commercial point of view - i.e., landed/delivered cost of imported oil versus domestic oil at the refinery, adjusted for quality - or does it include an economic component - i.e., the value of keeping the money within the economy of the USA (where it will generate business, jobs, and tax revenue) versus sending it offshore and contributing to our trade deficit?

What are the implications of these two approaches from the point of view of the oil industry?

[Tahoe3002]

Having been in downstream and upstream, (production or exploration) for 20+ years, I agree with your comments. BUT, this income creates money in the pockets of the workers, and income creates freedom FROM government. Non-workers (welfare) are not free and easily controlled by the government.

Free people do not generally vote for politicians who seek to take their freedom away.

[q_an_a]

Make a TEa Party sign that tells the story and get votes!! Hard to put more than Drill Baby Drill on a bumper sticker.

Norway is one of the richest countries in the EU it is an oil exporter. Every liberal talks about the EU like they are the way to go until you mention that they all drill baby drill.

[Recon Dad]

Dear Bluto (love the handle)

I am kind of an energy maven. Lived in Louisana for a period and have a relative in oil, so I try learn as much as I can on the subject. On FR we have an awesome group of industry people with real world drilling and exploring experience, who I always defer to.

I don’t know that I can from an accounting stand point address your question foriegn oil versus domestic. All oil is graded and if they are the same quality in Saudi or in Texas the price is standardized. Also keep in mind that the majority of our oil comes from Canada and Mexico so there is no ocean shipping issues.

If you look at Natural Gas as an example of what happens when you have plenty domestically to imports, you see a dramatic drop in imports. Shipping NG is not the same as oil but it’s an example.

I’m try (learning) to set up an Energy Issues ping list and as soon as I figure out how I expect it to be a good one with lots of imput from the pros.

[JimRed]

"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.."

And as soon as the briefing was over, the "legislators" held an emergency meeting to decide how to keep this information away from the public eye long enough to position themselves for maximum profit...

[ladyjane]

Liberals don’t want yucky oil drilling here in our country. Why pollute the environment of this country when you can do it in some distant third world country? NIMBY

[humblegunner]

Your caps-lock key is stuck.

[BOBTHENAILER]

IT WOULD PAY OFF OUR DEPT- ALL THIS WOULD BE CREATING JOBS AT THE SAME TIME- IT COULD PAY FOR HEALTH COVERAGE FOR LOW INCOME WORKERS- ALL THESE PROPERTIES COVERED IN OIL NEEDS TO BE TAPPED FOR LOTS OF REASONS..—

So you must be a big proponent of taxing the bejesus out of Oil & Gas Operators?

THAT THE GOV. DONT WANT TO DRILL

Since when did the Gov't drill anything? ? ?

[thackney]

Click on the keyword “Bakken” for the dozens of threads on this topic and the 4.3 billion barrels actually produceable from the Bakken by drilling rather than retorting.

[BOBTHENAILER]

The Bakken is a tight shale, as is the Barnett, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus (PA & NY), Fayetteville (Arkansas). These are the best, among many others now being explored.

Horizontal drilling techniques developed in the past 4-5 years, and more particularly, hydraulic fracturing (fracing), has opened up these shales, which were traditionally too tight to produce from a normal vertical well with a small frac (no k) put on it.

They are all very expensive to drill (anywhere from $3-4 million, up to $7-9 million), depending on depth, length of horizontal well and how hard they get popped with a frac. The frac job alone, with a million gallons of water, sand, and dish soap like detergent forced into the formation at very high pressure, can cost $1-3 million.

They all have high volume production, initially, with approx 60-70% of total reserves recovered in the first year. With that kind of steep decline, drilling these wells is very price sensitive,

. An operator has to ensure they will get their money back quickly or the investment begins to look rather sour.

[thackney]

These quantities are oil shale. The oil in the Bakken field produceable by drilling is far less.

[thackney]

The Bakken field is mostly oil shale. The amount that can be pumped directly without retorting the shale is estimated at 4.3 billion barrels. The Three Forks field lies beneath that and also has some pumpable oil.

[thackney]

Drilling in the Bakken has been going on for years.