New drilling method opens vast oil fields (US)

[Hazcat]

By JONATHAN FAHEY
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 10, 2011; 3:55 AM

-- 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.

Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day - more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.

This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.

--SNIP--

Petroleum engineers first used the method in 2007 to unlock oil from a 25,000-square-mile formation under North Dakota and Montana known as the Bakken. Production there rose 50 percent in just the past year, to 458,000 barrels a day, according to Bentek Energy, an energy analysis firm.

--SNIP--

In the Bakken formation, production is rising so fast there is no space in pipelines to bring the oil to market. Instead, it is being transported to refineries by rail and truck. Drilling companies have had to erect camps to house workers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021000859.html

More at link

[Timothy]

Interesting, I read this the other day myself.

I read somewhere that the Northern US and Canada have more oil reserves that all the other oil producing countries combined.

The problem is getting to it.

That and the treehuggers have a problem with it.......sort of like a black rifle, only gooey!

 

[twyacht]

Vast shale oil deposits in Utah, Wy Id, ANWR, the Gulf, Canada,...OUR continent has centuries worth of oil,.....we just can't get rid of polticians and bureaucrats, to get to it.

When was the last refinery built? Coal was targeted by the current admin, moratoriums were overturned by the Judiciary, SO the admin, changed the language and tied up the permitting process....

Yet our foreign oil dependence is held by a majority of countries that are anti-American....

Just like our POTUS.

[mortdooley]

 There is a plan and it is not a new plan, leaving vast oil deposits untouched and importing oil is all about politics. There would be no International Trading Partners if the USA was energy independent. Some subjects are so popular with the public that every President gives lip service to it but none of them mean it. There are huge oil fields that go undeveloped in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico and both the East and West Coasts so we are in no danger of running out.

[Ulmus]

I read about it in another forums and a great point was made.

It might be in out country, but once it is drilled, it is sold to whoever pays for it.  We don't automaticly get it.  And those companies aren't goerment owned.  They are private and can slow or stop drilling whenever they want to boost their profits.

So even if everything gets opened for drilling, don't expect to see $1.00 a gallon gas.

[Sponsor]

[WatchManUSA]

I read about it in another forums and a great point was made.

It might be in out country, but once it is drilled, it is sold to whoever pays for it.  We don't automaticly get it.  And those companies aren't goerment owned.  They are private and can slow or stop drilling whenever they want to boost their profits.

So even if everything gets opened for drilling, don't expect to see $1.00 a gallon gas.

Now don't take this wrong, I know you are quoting from forums you read.  This argument is the one liberals use to whip up emotions to force regulations on business.  It's the same formula they use to whip of emotion in an attempt to get gun and magazine capacity restrictions.

If you pay for the land leases and you pay for the drilling and you pay for the pipeline network then you can decide when you pump it and to whom you sell it just like anything you own.  There is nothing wrong or immoral doing so.

Don't fall for the ploy.

[tombogan03884]

The repeated cries of corporate greed that are aimed at the oil companies are socialist inspired BS.
Rastus is far better informed on this but he once broke down the distribution of oil money for us.
( this isn't the exact breakdown I was looking for but read the whole thread

http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=1739.0   )

Where the oil companies make their profit is on volume . Record profits come not from their " price gouging", but from our demand for ever more gas and electricity. They can sell every drop they can produce, new methods increase production efficiency and therefore record production equals record profits.
The real  " price gouging", comes from speculators, people like you who have IRA's or hold "mutual funds" and demand maximum return on their investment.

[PegLeg45]

The repeated cries of corporate greed that are aimed at the oil companies are socialist inspired BS.
Rastus is far better informed on this but he once broke down the distribution of oil money for us.
( this isn't the exact breakdown I was looking for but read the whole thread

http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=1739.0   )

Where the oil companies make their profit is on volume . Record profits come not from their " price gouging", but from our demand for ever more gas and electricity. They can sell every drop they can produce, new methods increase production efficiency and therefore record production equals record profits.
The real  " price gouging", comes from speculators, people like you who have IRA's or hold "mutual funds" and demand maximum return on their investment.

Yep.....as long as folks keep paying the price and demanding the volume, price will increase or at least stay the same. If folks only used the bare minimum fuel as needed to get by (stop making unnecessary trips etc), demand volume (and thus prices) would fall.

[tombogan03884]

In the breakdown that I was looking for Rastus showed the the lions share of what you pay for gas goes to state and federal taxes.

[PegLeg45]

Do not know the accuracy of the following:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gaspump.html