Report says up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil in Bakken shale (North Dakota)

[Duwelon]

Sorry if this is a repost but I'd like some feedback on this and i'd rather not put it into that Oil and Gas thread.

link

So apparently it's very expensive to drill for this oil, but since prices are apparently double the rate needed to make it profitable ($50 a barrel), the wells being 'dug' in ND are making economical sense.

I'd like to think this is a good direction to go. Is it safe to assume that if oil remains above $50 a barrel that eventually this field would become the highest output field in the US?

 

[sportage]

Exxon will pump the oil and charge $150 a barrel. Thats how it works....

 

[Duwelon]

Originally posted by: sportage
Exxon will pump the oil and charge $150 a barrel. Thats how it works....

Oh. Okay.

 

[ProfJohn]

If we want oil independence then this seems like a good way to get it.

Same with drilling in ANWAR and other places. Every little bit helps.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
If we want oil independence then this seems like a good way to get it.

Same with drilling in ANWAR and other places. Every little bit helps.

Why, there is no shortage.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
If we want oil independence then this seems like a good way to get it.

Same with drilling in ANWAR and other places. Every little bit helps.

I'd rather use up the rest of the world's oil first, and save ours for when we really need it.

 

[desy]

Actually the oil is 1-2% recoverable at 4 billion barrels with todays technology
which means 200 to 400 billion barrels
Its good as a long term but I've read it will produce at best about 200,000 barrels a day where NA consumes 25 million a day
So the world consume about 30 Billion a year with about something over a trillion left to get or about 35 yrs worth at current consumption.
See the problem?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: desy
Actually the oil is 1-2% recoverable at 4 billion barrels with todays technology
which means 200 to 400 billion barrels
Its good as a long term but I've read it will produce at best about 200,000 barrels a day where NA consumes 25 million a day
So the world consume about 30 Billion a year with about something over a trillion left to get or about 35 yrs worth at current consumption.
See the problem?

The biggest problem is nobody really knows how much oil we have. 30 years ago we were on our last 30 years of oil. 30 years later and we have 35 years to go supposedly. Shale oil, deep sea drilling ect ect will make oil a viable commodity for long to come. Hell I honestly wouldnt be surprised if oil is the basis for our economies at the turn of the next century. By then we may be looking at reliable space travel and the ability to mine other planets carbon fuel stores.

 

[Duwelon]

Originally posted by: desy
Actually the oil is 1-2% recoverable at 4 billion barrels with todays technology
which means 200 to 400 billion barrels
Its good as a long term but I've read it will produce at best about 200,000 barrels a day where NA consumes 25 million a day
So the world consume about 30 Billion a year with about something over a trillion left to get or about 35 yrs worth at current consumption.
See the problem?

Read the article. USGS is saying 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil with today's technology.

 

[desy]

Thats exactly what I said?
The recoverable only represents 1-2 % of what is there, the rest is UNRECOVERABLE or 98% of the oil

Shale oil is like tar sands only worse uses huge amounts of energy in NG and water, huge environmental and technological problems

Peak oil only refers to conventional liquid oil recovery not LNG or Coal distillates or Tar and Shale or Ocean Methane Gas Hydrates or deep sea or Arctic drilling, all of which cost a lot more money than the the cost of $4 a barrel they can pull it out of the desert for.

30 yrs ago the information was poor and Hubert projections have proven out for both the US and now the rest of the world. It never has been about running out of oil but the cost of getting poorer and harder to get oil. When it takes a barrel to get a barrel, its over

 

[ericlp]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
If we want oil independence then this seems like a good way to get it.

Same with drilling in ANWAR and other places. Every little bit helps.

I'm all for drilling oil anywhere and everywhere....

That being said we should also consume are resources WISELY and that not going out and buying a frigen gas hog ...

America needs to wake up and start making hybrid cars like the toyota prius that gets 60 on the highway with an average of 47-52 MGP! Theres no point in drilling for more oil if were just gonna burn it faster then we can get out of the ground.... That's just stupid!

 

[Jaskalas]

If we really are going to run out, it makes a lot of sense to save what we can.

 

[JSt0rm]

Yeah lets suck it all out and get 6mpg hummers yeah. I think the new super ride should be a semi truck. You could really pimp those out and you would have so much room for groceries and what not. Driving one of those would really tell the world "I have arrived and I'm special"

 

[Deleted member 4644]

The problem is not "running out" of oil. It is that the demand part of the curve is spiking like crazy, because of China, India, etc.

Meanwhile, the supply part of the curve is even or worse. Even if we bring new supplies online, oil, and thus food, and everything else will continue to get more expensive.

We MUST move away from oil as a fuel source, it is only a question of how long we have.. years, decades, or perhaps a century...

 

[StageLeft]

Assuming it can be done "in time" I agree with sentiments about saving this. Seems pretty fvcking asinine to tap into domestic sources so that we can still drive around in 4500 SUVs instead of paying higher prices now, but tolerable, and saving these resources for when it becomes "mission-critical" and things really get bad--assuming we get to that point, anyway.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Assuming it can be done "in time" I agree with sentiments about saving this. Seems pretty fvcking asinine to tap into domestic sources so that we can still drive around in 4500 SUVs instead of paying higher prices now, but tolerable, and saving these resources for when it becomes "mission-critical" and things really get bad--assuming we get to that point, anyway.

but thats not how capitalism works, people will drill as soon as it is proffitable, they aren't just gonna sit on it 10 years for oil prices to get REALLY insane. ANWAR will get sat on for a long time due to enviromental reasons which is OK, but its only a matter of time there, enviromentalists can hold out at $100/bbl, but what about $200 or $300? Eventually people will DEMAND that oil be drilled.

As for only getting 2% of the oil out, thats obviously a low number, but you never get 100% out from even the best mines, I'm not sure the numbers, but sommething like 30% might be reasonable, so if you want to think of it that way then there is huge amounts of oil underground, but if we can't get to it without using more energy then it contains then what good is it?

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: sportage
Exxon will pump the oil and charge $150 a barrel. Thats how it works....

If the world price of oil is $150 a barrel at that time, why would Exxon sell at a lower price?

When oil was only $10 a barrel just a few years ago, I didn't hear about any consumers offering to pay $1.50 a gallon at the pump. And when the real estate market was hot, I didn't hear about any homeowners willingly selling their houses for less than the market price.

 

[BoomerD]

In the 70's and early 80's oil shale was a big thing. There were several deposits developed and plants built, (2 outside Parachute, Colorado that I worked on) and the last I heard, they had been mothballed because they weren't cost effective to run. That was 25 years ago. MAYBE, with the current oil prices, that's changed and they're operational...but the last thing I find was from 2002 when they were being looked at for possible re-opening:
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hc...ticle?article_id=11056
(I was one of those 2500 workers)

 

[daniel49]

drill more , use shale, sands ,coal, and develop alternative energy with a future.
ethanol from corn is never going to work , all its doing is driving up the price of corn.
if thats the best they can do they may as well dig out the plans for the water cell battery again.

 

[jorken]

I say drill it all and use it by the end of next week and watch the shit hit the fan.

 

[JSt0rm]

The real problem is we use petrol for other things besides burning like plastics. Say what you will about plastic but it was a good invention. Life without it would be weird.

 

[Engineer]

Enough oil for just over 50 days at current world consumption.

33 billion barrel depost was found off the coast of Brazil last week (deep water drilling). Good for about 388 days +/- of world oil consumption.

(based on 85 million barrels per day useage).

Sounds like a lot of oil until you do the math. Every bit helps but it takes a shitload to make a real dent in the world supplies.

 

[techs]

Extracting oil from shale uses a tremendous amount of water. And since we have already drawn down the ogala aquifer to the point where parts of the midwest can no longer grow crops, I guess it is a choice between 5 dollar a loaf bread and 5 a gallon gas.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
If we want oil independence then this seems like a good way to get it.

Same with drilling in ANWAR and other places. Every little bit helps.

It's complete idiocy to use your own oil first when you can lick Saudi Arabia and Iraq oil dry first.