SHALE BOOM, BOOM, BAH

Shale Boom in Texas

Could Increase U.S. Oil Output

The Texas field, known as the Eagle Ford, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that advocates say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade

“It’s the one thing we have seen in our adult lives that could take us away from imported oil,” said Aubrey McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, one of the most aggressive drillers. “What if we have found three of the world’s biggest oil fields in the last three years right here in the U.S.? How transformative could that be for the U.S. economy?”

“That’s oil money,” said Bert Bell, a truck company manager, pointing to the new pickup truck he bought for his wife after making $525,000 leasing mineral rights around his family’s mobile home. “Oil money just makes life easier.”

 But water remains a key issue. In addition to possible contamination of surface and underground water from fracking fluids, the sheer volume of water required poses challenges, especially in South Texas, which faces a severe drought and rapidly diminishing water levels in the local aquifer.

 “In my lifetime, this is the biggest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Jose Gonzalez, 78, a retired teacher and son of migrant farm workers, who leased mineral rights to Chesapeake for $27,000 and sold another plot for $100,000 to a company building an RV park for oil workers. “You can see I’m happy.”

NY Times, 5/28/11 - HERE

UPDATE - TXSharon responds to Times article:

Texas Shale Boom: Creating a Third World County Without a Passport

Bluedaze - HERE

SHARON IS AWESOME

New drilling taps vast fields

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in several 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 two million barrels of oil a day - more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.

"We've completely transformed the natural gas industry, and I wouldn't be surprised if we transform the oil business in the next few years too," said Aubrey McClendon

"We have redefined how to look for oil and gas," said Rehan Rashid, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "The implications are major for the nation."

The Inquirer, 2/12/11 - HERE

"If our nation has to rely on oil shale as our last source...

we're in deep trouble"

"We've got this rush, this push,

to develop these very hazardous resevoirs...
the industry is starting to scare even me"

A Hundred Years?
Two Saudi Arabias?
TOTAL BULLSHIT
Post Carbon Institute report challenges EIA production forecasts

PDF Report, May 2011 - HERE

THE TIME HAS COME
A FACT'S A FACT