[American Constitutionalist]

So from reading this am I correct to say that the faster fall in production of the shale oil wells is not due to all the oil being drained out compared to traditional oil wells, but ? the ability to get at the rest of the 80 % of potential oil that is left in the play with current technology.
So the future prospect of this all in spite what OPEC says and the other propagandists say, we will have plenty of oil in the future and production if we are able to get at it when the technology improves.
Hope they manage it well to where they can keep the current production going over all until they can improve on that technology.

[thackney]

Both traditional plays and tight formations like shale fall in production due to loss of oil that is free to move through the formation. Shales typically have a much harder time to get the movement of oil due to low permability. That is why hydraulic fracturing is typically used. To create cracks that allow the oil to move to the well bore.

Without enhanced oil recovery methods, neither shale or traditional wells are going to typically produce more than 10~20% of the total oil in the ground. We have been using enhanced oil recovery methods like water flood, CO2 injection, etc for a long time in the country. Some reading on the concepts: http://www.csur.com/sites/default/files/Understanding_TightOil_FINAL.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_oil_recovery