Expanded Oil Drilling Helps U.S.Wean Itself From Mideast

Expanded Oil Drilling Helps U.S.Wean Itself From Mideast

online.wsj.com

America will halve its reliance on Middle East oil by the end of this decade and could end it completely by 2035 due to declining demand and the rapid growth of new petroleum sources in the Western Hemisphere, energy analysts now anticipate.

(visit the link for the full news article)

By 2020, nearly half of the crude oil America consumes will be produced at home, while 82% will come from this side of the Atlantic, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By 2035, oil shipments from the Middle East to North America "could almost be nonexistent," the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries recently predicted, partly because more efficient car engines and a growing supply of renewable fuel will help curb demand.


online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hopefully we won't even need crude oil by then. That's allowing for already invented energy tech to overshadow the existing lucrative energy sources at some point in the near future..

Very much a pipe dream until we dismantle the shadowy corporate/banking cartels shadowing these various revolutionary techs.

Curse you Obama for not letting drilling happen and double curse you for bringing gas prices down!!!!

Originally posted by spyder550
Curse you Obama for not letting drilling happen and double curse you for bringing gas prices down!!!!

Down, wtf are you smoking? Gas was 1.85/gallon when he took office and now its at 3.35

Ohhh, you mean its "down" from the high of 3.79?

This news is BS! Under capitalism, which encourages continous economic growth, and oversized gas-guzzling machinery, america can never become self-relliant. Not only that but digging for oil in offshore locations is too risky for the small rewards it offers. We simply do not need any more BP type accidents and it is doubtfull if the GOM will ever fully recover from that devastating oil leak.

Second we need to have better relations with the arab countries and stop being Israel's bitch. The more provacative we are the higher the prices will remain as instability lowers output and increases demand.

We have been doing everything the wrong way imo......dn:

reply to post by leosnake


The price and availability of Oil and energy in general is not the result of supply and demand.

Scarcity and shortages are the result of speculation by a very elite bunch of traders.

It's a brave new world especially in the realm of global economics.

The crap they teach you in University for your MBA is myth. Unless you have the right blood line; you will never know the reality of the way or the truth.

yay crappy economy !!!!

this is all balderdash btw. the US exported MORE than it imported in 2011

we already have enough to completely cut off the ME

but big oil (with their subsidies) like to sell it overseas at a higher price and import it at lower costs

and all they would have to do is keep all the refineries online and gas would be $ 2.00 a gallon

f em all

The Eagle Ford Shale discovery a few years ago, was one of the biggest finds in Texas, (possibly the lower 48) with reserves estimated at 3 billion barrels.
Then theres the Bakken Fields and another (forgot name) near Colorado.

link

The Eagle Ford Shale gas formation was discovered in 2008 and is unlike many other shale formations because it has both oil and natural gas resources. Located in Southwest Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale is estimated to have 20.81 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 3.351 billion barrels of oil. The formation ranges in depth from 5,700 to 10,200 feet and covers over 3,000 square miles.

Originally posted by olaru12
reply to post by leosnake

 

The price and availability of Oil and energy in general is not the result of supply and demand.

Scarcity and shortages are the result of speculation by a very elite bunch of traders.

It's a brave new world especially in the realm of global economics.

The crap they teach you in University for your MBA is myth. Unless you have the right blood line; you will never know the reality of the way or the truth.

I would not go that far! To a large extent supply and demand play a crucial factor in determing prices BUT the market forces that speculators relly on are way too sensitive to determine accurate prices. What we get is price gauging based on fixed bad news all perfectly timed of course for maximum impact.

The capitalist boom of asia and the continous poking of israel into syria and iran is too blame for 90% of the $3.50 per gallon price. Demand is very high and too much instability.

Yes america and europe could become a bit more self-relliant but not with off-shoring. I think offshoring is another accident waiting to happen...much like nuclear powered electric powerplants. "If you don't have the cure then make sure you don't fall sick" comes to mind.

reply to post by leosnake


Your link doesn't work. Can you get that fixed.

This doesn't make sense to me, this claim. Thus far there have been no significant crude reserves found to push the United States off foreign imports of crude. The USG estimates that up to 14 billion barrels of crude reserves are hidden in ANWR, another 5 billion estimated to be hidden in the Brakken field. Together those reserves won't last any longer than 20 years when consumed by the United states. It doesn't help that we demand 18.5 million barrels of the stuff a day, and that number continues to rise.

The only significant oil fields found have been those of shale oil which is an alternative non-renewable and unconventional energy, much like organic oil.

Found the article:

online.wsj.com... 41404577480952719124264.html

The shift, a result of technological advances that are unlocking new sources of oil in shale-rock formations, oil sands and deep beneath the ocean floor,

Shale oil and crude oil are not one in the same, they are two different sources of oil. Shale oil in an unconventional non-renewable alternative to crude oil. It takes a significant amount of energy to convert to the same usage as crude oil. President Jimmy Carter was pimpin' shale oil back in the late 70's due to the rabid cost increases of crude oil. Nobody took him seriously back then.

If anything, the demand for shale oil is a very good indication that the availability of crude reserves are declining rapidly. This is just a sneaky way of pushing through an alternative without anybody really knowing it. I posted a thread somewhere about why shale oil is the only viable alternative at this point.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


Well yea I realize all that but shale oil is still oil. The main problems with shale oil and oil sands were:
The cost and technology to get it out of the ground, Fracking has all but solved this problem
Also, the cost to refine it is higher.
Its like the difference between Light sweet crude oil (which is the easiest to refine) and the "sour" oil, like which comes from places like Venezuela (Citgo) It has a higher sulfur content and is harder to refine.
I work for an oil company but im in IT so im no expert but I do listen in lol.

As far as being non renewable, there are oil wells that are being uncapped and re pumped because they are starting to fill back up.

Originally posted by Juggernog
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

Well yea I realize all that but shale oil is still oil.

So is organic/seed oil. At the end of the day it's still an alternative to crude oil. The increase usage of alternative oils to crude oil demonstrates further that there is a peak in crude reserves. This was the point from the very start. Conservatives deny that there is a peak in crude reserves, but it is becoming increasingly evident.

I support further investment in shale oil, it is the only viable alternative at this point. At the same time it proves the point of many peak oil followers.

Originally posted by Southern Guardian

Originally posted by Juggernog
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

Well yea I realize all that but shale oil is still oil.

So is organic/seed oil. At the end of the day it's still an alternative to crude oil. The increase usage of alternative oils to crude oil demonstrates further that there is a peak in crude reserves. This was the point from the very start. Conservatives deny that there is a peak in crude reserves, but it is becoming increasingly evident.

I support further investment in shale oil, it is the only viable alternative at this point. At the same time it proves the point of many peak oil followers.

But it isnt an alternative, it is crude oil. The only thing that held us back is the extraction and refining methods.
Fracking is just one method used now, there is also talk of using microwaves to get it out.

Originally posted by Juggernog
But it isnt an alternative, it is crude oil.

Shale oil is not crude oil:

Oil Shale Today

Oil shale is an inorganic rock that contains a solid organic compound known as kerogen. The term "oil shale" is a misnomer because kerogen isn't crude oil, and the rock holding the kerogen often isn't even shale.

Conventional liquid crude oil is organic material--plant and animal remains--exposed to heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen over millions of years within the earth. Kerogen is among the first stages in the process of petroleum generation from organic matter; bitumen--the hydrocarbon targeted in oil sands projects--is formed from kerogen and represents a later stage in the process.

seekingalpha.com...

The two may be related, but they are not one in the same. Shale oil is an unconventional and non-renewable alternative to crude. I'd be really curious to see if you have a source that says otherwise, because I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to find it.

Wikipedia is not the best source, but in this case they've added references:

Oil shale, also known as kerogen shale, is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil (not to be confused with tight oil—crude oil occurring naturally in shales) can be produced. Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil;

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Southern Guardian


I think you may have missed this part man..

Oil shales differ from oil-bearing shales, shale deposits which contain petroleum (tight oil) that is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil-bearing shales are the Bakken Formation, Pierre Shale, Niobrara Formation, and Eagle Ford Formation.

I am well aware of the crude that comes out of Eagle Ford In South Texas, I work with these people everyday... It is crude oil, its just more costly to extract.

wiki

I noticed that in my other post that i referred to it as "shale oil" instead of "oil bearing shale" It was a mixup on my part..


btw, the bakken fields reserves are estimated at about 2 to 3 billion barrels, while the eagle ford estimates vary from 3 to 7 billion barrels and a couple trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Expanded Oil Drilling Helps U.S.Wean Itself From Mideast

So why are Republicans always claiming Obama's killing the oil industry? Oh yeah, because they lie every time they speak.

reply to post by Juggernog


That previous post of yours didn't prove anything. Shale oil and Crude oil are not one in the same. You are correct in saying that oil shale is different from shale oil, but together they are not crude oil. There is a table on page five of this report showing the differences:
carnegieendowment.org...

Unconventional Oil:
Crude Oil
Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs)
Condensate

Transitional Oil:
Heavy Oil
Ultra-deep Oil
Tight shale Oil

Unconventional Oil:
Extra-Heavy Oil
Oil Sand/Bitumen
Oil Shale/Kerogen

Gas-to-liquids
Coal to Liquids
Biofuels'

You say you work in this industry, you should know the neither are the same. You should also know that unconventional oils are but an insignificant percentage of current oils being used in vehicles todays. Unconventional oils are still verymuch an alternative under research and development.

You mentioned the Brakken oil fields, there's an estimated 4.3 billion barrels hidden there, yes:
www.usgs.gov...

The United States consumes over 18 million barrels of crude oil a day. That's over 6.5 billion barrels a year. Assuming there are that many barrels as estimated in Brakken, and assuming all that crude is going to American vehicles solely (because oil corporations have foreign customers, you know?), at 10% of those reserves a year you're looking at less than 10 years.