Cold world and no Fossil Fuels

[sigurdur]

Seems that thread go lost in the transition.

North Dakota now projects oil development/production to be approx 50 billion barrels of oil.

A 40-50 year play as the oil folks call it.

We are also expanding recovery of methane. Wet oil capture, and a new pipeline is going in to export the methane.

Thank goodness that most of this is on private lands as Fed lands have even more resources, but they are not being developed to any large degree because of the permitting process.

Looks like methane/natural gas is going to be around for decades along with oil.

[glennkoks]

sigurdur, They said the same thing about the Barnet Shale play in Texas. Natural gas prices have made drilling in the Barnet non profitable. Since the Bakaan Shale is an oil play it probably will be a multi-decadal play. However, the wrench in the machine would be a world wide economic recession/depression which could make drilling the more expensive horizontal wells

[glennkoks]

sigurdur, I posted this a while ago but it certainly good be good news for areas like the Bakaan.

Wellhead Energy Systems LLC, is currently making medium sized electrical generators that create electricity from wellhead gas in rural areas where natural gas infrastructure does not exist. As it stands now much of the gas in rural areas like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota is flared off because of a lack of infrastructure. So natural gas from far away travels thousands of miles to electrical plants and then the electricity is transmitted hundreds of miles where up to 10% of it is lost in transmission.

[sigurdur]

North Dakota would be a perfect place to put a few of those generators. The natural gas expresssed from a wet hole is a by product, so utilizing this is important.

I agree that the world economy is in a mess. Folks still want something for nothing as demonstrated in Greece. The USA is in sorry financial shape as well, but no one seems to want to admit this.

[nautonnier]

Greece is peanuts compared to the problems in California. Expectation in Europe is that Greece will be back on a Drachma by next January.

[sigurdur]

nautonnier:
I agree that Greece will be forced to leave the Union.

As far as California.......ayep. They are going down hill fast and can't seem to understand why.
That area has been a huge drag on the US economy, and now with the increase in elec in the NE and Upper NE midwest being confirmed..........the US as a whole is in the real hurtbag.

[glennkoks]

nautonnier, I am not so sure that Greece will be back on the Drachma anytime soon. They owe a huge debt in Euro's and a worthless currency will all but insure they can't pay it back. In addition the fear of contagion to Spain and Italy would play havok on the rest of Europe.

Simply put it may be cheaper to keep Greece in the Euro than to deal with the consequences of a messy exit. I fully expect the Euros to continue to kick the can down the road, avoiding a default but not correcting the situation either.

Interesting times we live in and I am curious to see how this all plays out.

[trbixler]

Seems we have established that it is not a lack of "fossil" fuels but only a death wish to not use them. I put quotes around the fossil because it is still not clear to me that they are fossil in nature other than coal.

[magellan]

I kept this for future reference
www.zerohedge.com/news/fed-may-inject-over-1-trillion-bail-out-europe

[trbixler]

Of course this bonanza can be regulated to death with just a little effort.

"World to gain from gas glut if regulation right"

"(Reuters) - A boom in unconventional natural gas over the next 20 years could see the United States and others benefit from cheaper energy while the importance of the Middle East declines, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

Growth in shale and other newly available forms of natural gas in the United States and China could match gains made in conventional gas in Russia, the Middle East and North Africa combined, IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol told Reuters in an interview."

www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/29/us-energy-gas-iea-idUSBRE84S0LB20120529

[sigurdur]

If the present administration had its way, there would be no natural gas boom.

[glennkoks]

sigurdur, as you know I work in the oil and gas business and I just don't see the current administration being as anti-natural gas as some are trying to make it out to be.

I'm not saying the present admin is pro-drilling but I don't really see a conscious effort to reduce it either. I think they are smart enough to realize that without the energy sector or economy would really be in the tank.

[sigurdur]

glenn:
I respect your opinion in these matters. At the forum last week in Bismarck, one of the leading potential items that would slow down or stop development in ND was the potential rules concerning fracking.
EPA tried that once here, and we sued them, thus stopping them for a bit.

I know that Western ND is a rough and tumble place right now, but housing/roads etc are slowly being built to fill the void. And as more pipelines come on-line that is going to be a huge help as well.

Continental figures it will take 16 years at the rate of approx 220 active drillers to develop the field. They have also now dug a few test wells deeper than the shale at the edge of the Bakken that produce more than the shale area. That is what I mentioned a while ago.....in that there is wayyyyyy more oil here than thought even one year ago.

With more natural gas pipelines and hopefully the errection of those natural gas generators you mentioned, we will be able to harness over 90% of all the energy becoming available.

[magellan]

May 29, 2012 17:13:50 GMT glennkoks said:

sigurdur, as you know I work in the oil and gas business and I just don't see the current administration being as anti-natural gas as some are trying to make it out to be.

I'm not saying the present admin is pro-drilling but I don't really see a conscious effort to reduce it either. I think they are smart enough to realize that without the energy sector or economy would really be in the tank.

I don't really see a conscious effort to reduce it either. I think they are smart enough to realize that without the energy sector or economy would really be in the tank.

How can you even say that? Obama has made it clear his goal is to bankrupt the coal industry which supplies 50% of our electricity. Already our electric bill has risen 20% since Obama placed his words into action. In several states the cost of electricity is soaring and will continue to soar because of Obama's policies. Obama is an ideologue, not smart. It isn't arguable Obama had his Utopian "green energy" scheme to replace "fossil fuels". Promises of 5+ million "green" jobs and other idiotic unattainable pipe dreams have brought many areas to their collective knees.

blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2012/02/obamas_policies_not_helping_oi.html

All of the increase in production is on leases issued prior to 2009, and are on private or state lands, not on public lands controlled by the federal government.

For example, production in North Dakota, on private and state land, has increased from practically none to over 425,000 barrels a day. The unemployment rate has dropped below 5 percent. Under the president’s policy, oil lease sales in the Rocky Mountain region are down 70 percent. He has put 80 percent of the continental shelf off limits, Currently, less than 5 percent of land under his control is being developed.

www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/08/anwr-wilderness-designation

On Monday the US Fish and Wildlife Service took the first step in granting increased federal protection to a relatively small, oil-rich region within ANWR known as the "1002 area" by nominating it for wilderness designation in a lengthy report (PDF) on conservation plans for ANWR.

The Department of the Interior has frozen oil and gas development on 60 of 77 contested drilling sites in Utah, saying the process of leasing the land was rushed and badly flawed.

Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the chief trade group for the industry, criticized the action, saying it was one of a series by the Obama administration to thwart oil and gas development.

What does the president of the API know about oil?


news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2010/03/08/obama-administration-blocks-virginias-shore-drilling-plans

Newly sworn-in Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s pledge to make the state the “energy capital of the East Coast” has run into a roadblock as the Obama administration has announced it will block Virginia’s plans for offshore oil and natural gas production until at least 2012.

winteryknight.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/obama-administration-blocks-oil-production-in-ohio-200000-jobs-lost/

And the list goes on and on.


The first three years Obama, and by fiat the EPA, has done everything possible to block new oil production. He even stated he will bypass Congress and do his bidding by regulation; promises made, promises kept. Now it is 2012, an election year and suddenly Obama is the "oil president". Give me a break.

Recently he lied through his teeth by saying the U.S. only has 2% of the world's oil reserves. For some reason that line gets bandied about by many. Hell, I even thought it was true not too many years ago.

[sigurdur]

magellan:
With shale oil etc, the US now has over 38% of the worlds fossil fuel reserves.

The question will be....can we get it out of the ground.