The U.S. Is Poised to Hit a New Oil Gusher

[Mugu]

By Jim Ostroff

A new black gold rush is under way, this time in North Dakota. The potential payoff is huge -- up to 100 billion barrels of oil. That’s twice the size of Alaska’s reserves and potentially enough to meet all U.S. oil needs for two decades.

Until now, the obstacles to production seemed overwhelming. The crude oil is locked away in rocks that are buried miles underground in the Bakken Play, a field that stretches into Montana and Saskatchewan, Canada.

But times have changed. High oil prices and new technology make it worth the effort. Computer analysis and remote sensing systems, plus smart drills that can probe horizontally or snake left and right, vastly improve the odds of locating new pools and putting them into production. And though oil is unlikely to remain priced at current stratospheric levels, prices won’t drop to much lower levels, which happened several times since the 1970s, and cause new exploration to dry up. Even if prices fell by half, many barrels of oil could still be produced -- profitably -- from the region.

An official government survey of the Bakken region's oil treasure trove is due out next month. The report is expected to play it very conservatively, because it will confine estimates to the amount of oil that likely can be produced profitably based on last year’s oil prices. It will also not take into account any further technological advances that might make it even easier to extract more oil.


Read complete article at:
http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/The_U.S._Poised_to_hit_New_Oil_Gusher_080317.html

[maxsolomon]

1. happy times are here again.

global warming, schmobal warming.

[Indenturedebtor]

2. I know right

Guess I can finally get that 18 wheeler I always wanted.

Wooohooo :(

[tomg]

3. Thank God. Now we can all have Hummers.

Is that sarcasm thing necessary? Well, just to be safe. :sarcasm:

[robertpaulsen]

4. Cornucopian bullshit.

These guys don't know EROEI from Erin Moran. :eyes:

[hunter]

5. Trying to talk down the price of oil by making stuff up...

I wouldn't bet any money on this one. If one wants to go for the long shot, there are some innovative approaches to fusion energy that look more promising.

My prediction -- the age of the automobile and disposable plastic will end and this oil will remain where it is. That's a good thing.

[pitohui]

7. we're always 50 years away from affordable fusion

i don't put much faith in the tar sands or other means of recovering low quality oil and gas but fusion? there's no there there

we'd better figure something out better than tearing out the mountains for the last drop of coal or the last bit of tar

[hunter]

9. There's even less "there" here.

This oil is beyond the receding horizon, further than fusion, I think.

If I had to bet on a longshot I'd go with something like polywell fusion (wikipedia) rather than unconventional oil like this.

As it stands now, tar sands, coal, and unconventional oil like this is going to take a beating as much less expensive oil and natural gas resources become scarce. Resources like this are so difficult to extract they cannot be counted on to support the sort of industrial society we are accustomed to. Any stability in oil prices we acheive from this point on will be accomplished by reductions in the demand for oil, either by rational means or by involuntary and painful contractions of the overall world economy.

[zorahopkins]

6. Damage To The Environment And More Addiction

Oh, terrific.

More damage to the enviroment.

More addiction to oil.

More oilmen getting rich at the expense of the rest of us.

We need to CONSERVE and develop alternative energy sources.

Leave the oil in the ground!

[Javaman]

8. Yawn. total bullshit...

On the average it takes between 5 to 10 years before a field can become commercially viable.

by the time this alleged "field" goes on line, the demand for oil will have out stripped it's supposed reserve amount.

This is just more shoveling shit against the tide.

Notice how there has been virtually no more news about the supposed "huge" find in the Gulf of Mexico regarding the New Jack field? because it was bullshit. Too deep, too hot and most of all too little. Once again the oil industry put the cart before the horse.

Same here. more bullshit by the bullshitters. Or as my dad would say, "you can't shit the shitters".