Peak Oil is Dead...Thanks To Fracking

Several years ago, movies and articles the world over declared the world was going to run out of oil and gas and we would have no choice but to embrace alternative energy like solar and wind. And then came fracking. We can get oil out the ocean out of sources 5,000 and 10,000 feet from the oceans. America is now poised this year to be the world's biggest producer of liquid fuels. More than Russia and Saudi Arabia. What will America do with all its oil?

thediplomat.com...

reply to post by travis911


Probably not use it to pay off the national debt.

reply to post by travis911


My guess is raise the price and blow the profits like all of our other money we had in the past.....No proof, just a guess

Energy Independence perhaps?

Also of note, even through fracking and traditional forms of extraction, anywhere from 40-60% of usuable oil remains in the wells as we have yet to develop efficient technologies to get it out of the ground. This is due to the fact we rely primarily on the natural pressurization of the well to push the crude up to the surface.

I wouldnt be surprised if more technology revolving around the extraction of this left over oil comes about sooner then clean energy sources or the implimentation of clean energy sources.

reply to post by travis911


What will America do, not the people, TPTB? Keep on going with the quest of acquiring all the oil in the world through fake wars. Once accomplished, "hold it for ransom" all the while keeping new clean tech suppressed. Fraking is killing our natural water supplies. The fluids used seep into water tables and renders it undrinkable. Which will lead to the war for water.

all this will do is speed up the process and inevitable demise of oil as we know it.

sure things might be good for a couple of years but then the roller-coaster has to come down at one point.

by now roughly half the country should have been running on solar energy during the day, and conventional electricity during the nights.

this would have been known as hybrid cities..kind of the same way a hybrid car works..

lol so much for that.

NO peak oil is not dead.

www.smartplanet.com...

It is all about EROI

And this should send a chill up your spine, because the EROI of domestic U.S. oil production is now approaching 10, having fallen from around 100 in the early days of oil (Cleveland, 2005). Even in the few prospects where we can still drill a well that will produce over 100,000 barrels of oil per day, like the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the EROI varies from 4 to 14 (Moerschbaecher, 2012).

What?

Energy independence? The end of Peak Oil?



Fracking is an environmental disaster in itself. It's new way to screw you out of a healthy planet. They are trying that crap in my neck of the woods in Canada and there is FIERCE opposition because of the drastic environmental implications.

Do you really trust those who gave you the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon, the power to contaminate your drinking water, permanently?

I don't.

The answer to sustainable living in the 21st century is to move away from fossil derived fuels and move towards alternative energies.

This website explains quite well how Fracking is a major problem and probably something we should not do at all,considering the track record of those involved.

www.dangersoffracking.com...

~Tenth

I run a fracking crew in West Texas. It is not dangerous to the environment. I will drink any slurry that I have put down a hole. The ney sayers are the same bunch that has shuttered the coal business in the US. The US could be energy independent in less than a decade if the wack job environmentalists would study pressure pumping rather than mindlessly regurgitate the rantings of the ill-informed. No fresh water sources have ever been contaiminated by fracking but by unscrupulous waste haulers in the northeastern US. We do not even use fresh water to frack. We use produced water that would have been disposed in an empty formation. I was an environmental consultant for 20 years and know the agenda of the environmentalists all too well. Coal, NG and Oil can keep us energy independent for thousands of years. Educate yourselves and not allow the ones who shout loudest to control your lives.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


You do know fracking isn't new, don't you? You claim it to be this terrible thing when in fact, this has been the best and safest way to extract natural gas and other resources from the ground for a long time now.

Instead of condemning an entire operation because of one incident (ie deep water horizon), you might want to research the actual benefits and how it has not only created tons of jobs and helped smaller communities flourish, but has brought a safe way to get resources to the surface...

Research on how BP denied Halliburton, and the other companies involved, the right to tell them what they are doing wrong....BP forced the terrible casing job on them and told them this is how it is going to be.....If casing is done properly, there is nothing to worry about. This deepwater horizon failure could have been completely avoided if BP would have listened to the higher ups with Halliburton on their casing....This is why BP couldn't press charges on anyone else, it was 100% their fault for not listening.....That is not fracking that caused this, it was neglect!

I've went down this bunny trail with others in the past, so I am aware you won't change your mind on the matter.....That being said, fracking isn't going away! There have been not only EPA, but politicians and high ranking officials actually witness a frac job and test water supplies with absolutely nothing detrimental to the health or well being of any person or water supply nearby....

Most of the "flaming faucets" and bs they find are caused by methane, which is very common in people with a water well and nothing to do with fracking that happened 400 miles away....

Whether or not we are at peak global oil production is debatable but many oil analysts believe we have passed peak global oil production.
The fact is that big fields are getting harder and harder to find and we must now resort to fracking and trying to get at oil 5 or 10 thousand feet below the ocean. As oil increases in price more expensive and difficult extraction becomes more economically viable. Before the GFC oil was at about $147 US a barrel.

The easy oil is running out now we have to get at the harder oil. I don't believe we will run out of oil but it will get more and more expensive and difficult to get out of the ground until other energy technologies can take over in the future. As the Saudis say the stone age didn't end because we ran out of stone.

The peak of oil discovery was passed in the 1960s, and the world started using more than was found in new fields in 1981. The gap between discovery and production has widened since. Many countries, including some important producers, have already passed their peak, suggesting that the world peak of production is now imminent. Were valid data available in the public domain, it would a simple matter to determine both the date of peak and the rate of subsequent decline, but as it is, we find maze of conflicting information, ambiguous definitions and lax reporting procedures. In short, the oil companies tended to report cautiously, being subject to strict Stock Exchange rules, whereas certain OPEC countries exaggerated during the 1980s when they were competing for quota based on reported reserves.

www.peakoil.net...

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


No, it's not because I haven't done my research. Like I said, the industry pushed VERY hard for it to come to our province. They did their studies, we did ours.

What we found is that the companies were unwilling to provide a plan for worst c ase scenario, nor were they even able to agree that their operation had the potential of becoming an environmental disaster.

They failed to provide a compelling argument for a project that was high cost and high risk. The general industry admits that 20% of wells have the potential of failing during operation. That's not a risk my community is willing to take.

Neither should yours, until it's proven to be safe and effective. I'm sure they've accomplished that in some areas, and that's what fracking actually exists as a business, but they do not have a universal process, that's impossible.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Part of what you are saying is right. There can't be a universal process with thousands of companies involved. They all try to attempt some of the same standards, but as with any company, some try to cut corners to save money.

The casing was 100% the fault with the deepwater venture....I am in the industry and have the inside information on it from which I am not allowed to share other than my opinion's on it. I am not a paid social media person defending them or anything like that, I have just done very intensive research on the topic, the casing was argued about for a long time before BP pushed their "cheaper" agenda on Halliburton and the other companies involved.

If BP would have listened to what the Halliburton high ups were talking about, this would never have happened....NEVER!! Casing is the most important part of any frac job, if your cement casing is done correct, then nothing can leak out and no problems will come about because of it. Unfortunately every company that fracs does not have the same policies to a casing job, hence some issues here and there.

There have been companies fracking for coming up on 100 years, believe me they are very good at what they do. There has been so much money spent on research and what is needed to successfully get resources out of the ground this way and there are very few instances where mistakes are made now a days.

Like I said if the deep water job was done right, most people still wouldn't even know what fracking is.....Any terrible thing that happens like that will open people's eyes to what can happen worst case scenario.

People can make claims against it all they want and blame fracking for whatever they want, that does not make it true, you know this. They do test after test on water supplies, fracking fluid, water samples on locations, etc to be 100% sure there has been no damage done for local people and water supplies.

If all you hear from people is negativity with no actual evidence, just a bunch of he said she said, that is what you will believe, unfortunately.....

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


Like I said, I'm not against fracking. I'm against fracking in high risk areas. Which is what they were proposing in my community.

I oppose any energy project that has the potential to turn into a HUGE ecological disaster, until the companies are willing to offer their fortunes and freedoms to guarantee it's safety. ( of course discounting actual accidents)

What I've observed over the years, is that Canadian mining and energy companies are some of the most greedy and dishonest in the industry. They have a build first, ask questions later sort of mentality and I'm not alright with that anymore.

Again, all for the projects, they just have to have sound science and a sound guarantee of responsibility if and when any problems arise.

~Tenth

reply to post by travis911


This is the most ignorant and downright stupidest statement I've seen on ATS in a long time and there have been doosies. PEAK OIL IS DEAD because of Fracking. Are you mentally retarded? The only thing I can conclude is you have no freaking idea what peak oil is. Understanding what peak oil means invariably leads to the knowledge that peak oil is NOT!!!! about running out of oil. Get that through your heads people. It is about the inability to year-after-year pump increasingly larger amounts forever. You need a remedial lesson in what peak oil is and is not. Deny ignorance!

We don't need fracking to get oil out of the ground in America. There is enough oil here to last 300 years. There are plenty of capped wells that have been capped for 50 years. They hold oil. They have already been drilled. Environmentalists will not allow them to be utilized. My own grandmother was paid $10k for a ten year oil rights lease on her property 40 years ago. They never drilled. Oil is needed in far more than cars. It is used in nearly everything. Even fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. So even if we all go to electric cars we will still need massive amounts of oil.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower

Fracking is an environmental disaster in itself. It's new way to screw you out of a healthy planet. They are trying that crap in my neck of the woods in Canada and there is FIERCE opposition because of the drastic environmental implications.

Do you really trust those who gave you the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon, the power to contaminate your drinking water, permanently?

I don't.

How is it that we've come to the point where all the people in power are the *wrong* people? As you and others point out, what good will it do to have oil if the water is poisoned?

reply to post by jcarpenter


If we don't have oil, billions will die. We would not be able to feed them. It's use in fertilizer alone doubled food production. I don't want to pollute the water supply but we are in a catch 22 situation when it comes to oil. Die now or die later. Hopefully technology will save us. All the disgust about oil solves nothing.