Posted on 05/21/2014 6:41:36 PM PDT by Praxeologue
Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California's vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum.
Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation's oil future and to projections that an oil boom would bring as many as 2.8 million new jobs to California and boost tax revenue by $24.6 billion annually.
The Monterey Shale formation contains about two-thirds of the nation's shale oil reserves. It had been seen as an enormous bonanza, reducing the nation's need for foreign oil imports through the use of the latest in extraction techniques, including acid treatments, horizontal drilling and fracking.
The energy agency said the earlier estimate of recoverable oil, issued in 2011 by an independent firm under contract with the government, broadly assumed that deposits in the Monterey Shale formation were as easily recoverable as those found in shale formations elsewhere.
The estimate touched off a speculation boom among oil companies. The new findings seem certain to dampen that enthusiasm.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
As Smokin’ Joe said above, a guy that goes on YouTube to complain he can’t get a high paying job without experience has other problems that keep him from getting hired.
The Williston is a cratonic basin and the Gulf Basin is what is known as a passive margin. Both are known for having low heat flow. I would think that California would have higher heat flow with all the basement rock nearby. So, 10,000’ may be too deep. But, my knowledge of California geology is pretty limited. A quick search of some geochemical papers would provide an answer.
I know the Williston Basin pretty well, but I, too, am limited in knowledge when it comes to the Monterey. I’d have to do some digging. In the meantime, there are lower hanging fruit...
Well I probably overstated the case here. It can be reasonably said that the burls and the faulted land are not knotty. However, they are knarly.
knarly they are.
It isn’t so much a problem for “drilling” as I understand it, it is more the multiple separations of the oil plays.
Gee, how 'unexpected'.
EVERYTHING in the Obama regime is political.
It isnt so much a problem for drilling as I understand it, it is more the multiple separations of the oil plays.
.................
So the drills can’t make right hand —then left hand—then right hand— etc—turns. The drills can’t snake. (That’ll come . The materials research guys are working on materials that will warp pipes in a wave pattern so as to push water or oil inside. I haven’t heard of anyone making an oil drill like a plumbing snake but that will likely come—as its called for.)
Twisted knarly
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