Is Fracking Really Dying?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/fracking-really-dying



Two short years ago, industry analysts and television pundits were toasting North Dakota as the “Saudi Arabia of North America.” But the fracking rush that made the Peace Garden State the poster child of the U.S. energy boom has gone bust.

North Dakota’s numerous gas flares, even visible from the International Space Station, are flickering out as tens of thousands of energy workers are being given their pink slips. Small North Dakota towns recently bustling with workers and other fortune seekers are returning to the rural tranquility they once knew.

So why has fracking slipped into hibernation? Depends who you ask. Many industry analysts say fracking is a victim of its own success, helping to drive oil prices so low it was no longer affordable to frack new wells. Others point to the drop in global demand, spurred by a slowdown in the Chinese economy, alternative energies and an American public that’s not only driving more fuel-efficient cars, but driving less. Most popular, perhaps, is the theory that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, purposely sabotaged the U.S. fracking industry by maintaining its current production levels while global oil demand falls, causing prices to spiral downward.

There is probably some truth to all three. The U.S. fracking industry, which hardly existed in 2008, doubled U.S. oil output in only six years. Because of fracking, last year the U.S. became the largest oil-producing nation, leapfrogging over Saudi Arabia and Russia.

[davidpdx]

1. I'd like to believe it has to do with how unsafe it is

Then again, that's naive to think.

[RiverLover]

2. +1 nt

[FLPanhandle]

3. The good news is just the threat of fracking cranking back up again...

will keep OPEC from letting oil prices rise too high again.

I suspect the Saudi's will let oil rise just to the low end of the fracking break point and keep it there.

[femmocrat]

4. Oh, I hope so.

There have been articles in the local papers (PA) about slow-downs, etc. for some time now.

"Experts say that's because of several factors - but the biggest by far is a steep plunge in the price that natural gas was getting on the open market, in part a result of so much fracking here and elsewhere."

http://articles.philly.com/2013-09-12/news/41974274_1_fracking-boom-penn-state-marcellus-center-marcellus-shale (Sorry I couldn't find anything more recent, but it still seems relevant.)