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New drilling method opens vast oil fields in US
Yahoo ^

Posted on 02/10/2011 11:22:08 AM PST by Weird Tolkienish Figure

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bakken; drill; drilling; energy; epa; gas; oil; shale; shaleoil
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To: Jewbacca

Are you thinking of Smokin Joe?


41 posted on 02/10/2011 4:20:26 PM PST by Recon Dad ( Zero point two... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son)
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To: MrB

Roll the calendar ahead 2 years from today and we have a true conservative in the white house and the dismantling of the EPA, Interior and the Engery Departments has started.
The question is what will be the price of a barrel of oil.

The gulf and Alaska start to flow.....

(From my lips to God’s ears)


42 posted on 02/10/2011 4:34:33 PM PST by Recon Dad ( Zero point two... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son)
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To: MrB

YEP. We are paying their saleries to tell us what we can and cannot have. Seems strange to me. I paid salaries to employees to do MY bidding, not theirs. The epa is our employees, not our dictators, as they are want to believe.
I’ve printed this before. I read an article some years ago whereby an EPA employee stated they (epa) wanted the same fearsome authority of fear as did the IRS over American citizens. Now, I do believe the epa has a lot of our elected in dc to do their bidding, by making laws that do no good for the American economy.


43 posted on 02/10/2011 6:05:50 PM PST by tillacum (The American military keeps us free, not the politicians or media. Praise Be for them.)
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To: RayChuang88
"True, but that’s based on the type of extraction being used in Saudi Arabia now. What if Saudi Arabia starts to use the type of extraction mentioned in the article and/or uses pressurized gas/liquid detergent injection into wells? That could increase the Saudi reserves by 50% or more!"

Much of how well it works depends on the type of rock formations you are trying to do it in. I know it works in some places here, but I don't know if that is true there or not. Seems that if it was then they would be all over it.

44 posted on 02/11/2011 4:46:21 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Abathar
The thing is up until now, there was no need for hydraulic fracturing to extract oil from the Saudi Arabian oilfields. But since the "easy to pump out" oil is running low, Saudi Aramco will need to start using these new extraction methods, which could recover a MASSIVE amount of oil not only in current oilfields, but potential oilfields in that country that were deemed uneconomic to extract from in the past.
45 posted on 02/11/2011 5:12:30 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: Recon Dad

Maybe. He’s a Jewish poster, if that helps.


46 posted on 02/11/2011 7:57:02 AM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
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To: dirtboy

Thanks for the compliment.......


47 posted on 02/11/2011 8:05:13 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (Patriotic by Proxy! (Cause I'm a nutcase and it's someone Else's' fault!....))
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To: Recon Dad; Smokin' Joe

Smokin Joe is in the Williston Basin with me.......


48 posted on 02/11/2011 8:06:47 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (Patriotic by Proxy! (Cause I'm a nutcase and it's someone Else's' fault!....))
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

I’m envious!


49 posted on 02/11/2011 8:22:04 AM PST by Recon Dad ( Zero point two... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son)
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To: Jewbacca

Just got word that Smokin’Joe is out drilling in the Williston Basin right now.


50 posted on 02/11/2011 8:25:15 AM PST by Recon Dad ( Zero point two... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son)
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To: bestintxas
Was that ever true when Hitler during WWII made coal into gasoline for his Panzers...

The Panzers ran on diesel fuel, not gasoline.

Diesel is easier to produce from coal and can be distilled from crude oil. Gasoline manufacture is much more complex.

51 posted on 02/12/2011 2:36:29 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: SeeSac
If it has been around for decades, why are they suddenly being able to increase production?????

Because we are fracking two miles of wellbore drilled laterally through a 4-12 foot thick pay zone instead of 4-12 feet of pay zone in a vertical well.

The fracs are multistage as well, isolating sections of that horizontal wellbore for better effectiveness.

What makes this feasible is a combination of drill bit, survey tool (MWD), and mud motor development, coupled with the recognition of several viable formations which are capable of being produced with this technology.

It all works together, and although we were doing this in the 80s, the technology was no where near as efficient, and many of the different target strata had not been realized to have the potential they do.

52 posted on 02/12/2011 2:45:57 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: Weird Tolkienish Figure

Tomorrow’s headline:

Obama Administration Issues Moratorium on New Drilling Method


53 posted on 02/12/2011 2:53:41 AM PST by Nickname
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To: Don Corleone

Now stop. That would create jobs and we can’t have that.


54 posted on 02/12/2011 2:55:54 AM PST by Nickname
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To: dirtboy
I worked on frac jobs in West Texas around 1980.

They were very intense, and long jobs.

Which means most of them were catered with great BBQ and always great pecan pie for desert!

One of the bosses on a frac crew would look over the job and usually say “This looks like a 2 can job” and then stuff a big gob of chew in his cheek and start giving orders. lol

55 posted on 02/12/2011 8:42:01 AM PST by Syncro (Sarah Palin, the unofficial Tea Party candidate for president--Virtual Jerusalem)
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To: Smokin' Joe

you are correct. sorry about that, but i trust my point taken


56 posted on 02/13/2011 4:56:11 AM PST by bestintxas (Somewhere in Kenya, a Village is missing its Idiot.)
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To: bestintxas
Your point about diesel is taken, and a good one, but recall if you will that this administration has sworn to shut down the coal industry. The current land-grab going on in the DOI/BLM is pushing to obtain chunks of Montana which are underlain by Lignite reserves and may have recoverable oil as well.

The FedGov has 245,000,000 acres of land now, they don't need more, and I think this country can ill afford to remove it from consideration for energy production.

57 posted on 02/13/2011 10:42:21 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: Smokin' Joe

wholeheartedly agree.

Libs require fossil fuels to go up in price by whatever means necessary via scarcity or taxes, so their agenda of “green” is more palatable.

Meanwhile, every other country in the world is pursuing the exploitation of its own resources, including Cuba right off our coast.


58 posted on 02/14/2011 5:46:10 AM PST by bestintxas (Somewhere in Kenya, a Village is missing its Idiot.)
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To: bestintxas
Libs require fossil fuels to go up in price by whatever means necessary via scarcity or taxes, so their agenda of “green” is more palatable.

True insanity at its finest. They'll put hundreds of acres of desert in shade to put up solar arrays, but wouldn't let a motorcycle race dash through it in former years because it might disturb unoccupied tortise dens...

Similar disconnects apply all over their part of the moonbat spectrum.

The bottom line, though, is that no technology which does not work will be palatable to the American public at any price.

At this latitude, the electric vehicle is a deathtrap six months out of the year, and questionable transport the rest for anything but the most local of trips. From major town to major town it won't cut it--not enough range. There is no bus, and rail is only on east-west routes on some days, and nonexistent otherwise. (In short there is no public transportation.)

We don't have many options, and in the dead of winter, even diesel had better be No. 1 grade, or it will gel up.

The war against energy is a war against life, and not just here.

59 posted on 02/14/2011 6:04:04 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: Weird Tolkienish Figure

Environutters will discover the previously unknown North American Spotted Ferret Bat and then BLM will put the whole state off limits and Algore will come and build a 8000 square foot mansion on Devils Lake.


60 posted on 02/15/2011 9:35:53 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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