The Energy Thread

[Uncle Ted]

I don't know about enhanced oil recovery. However, my FIL is a reservoir engineer who has spent the last ~25 years overseas developing new wells. He has told me repeatedly that all of the major wells have long been discovered; all the new ones are relatively small. In addition, the new ones are usually offshore. I've also seen him lose money more than once getting paid with stock options. It takes a ton of money to develop a new well, especially those offshore. And even when a well is projected to make a profit, many unrelated factors (mostly geopolitical and economic) can pull the plug on drilling at any time. He is usually a skeptic, but I guess in that field hope in profits turns you optimistic. One time he saw his stocks rise from pennies to real money, back to pennies again because he didn't want to sell before production.

I have no background in petroleum, I have only superficial knowledge of it, yada yada.

Was that before or after the shale oil discovery in west texas?

Shale oil discovery in West Texas largest ever

The U.S. Geological Survey has made its largest discovery of recoverable crude ever under parts of West Texas, the federal agency announced Tuesday.


A recent assessment found the “Wolfcamp shale” geologic formation in the Midland area holds an estimated 20 billion barrels of accessible oil along with 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. That’s three times higher than the amount of recoverable crude the agency found in the Bakken-Three Forks region in the upper midwest in 2013, making it “the largest estimated continuous oil accumulation that USGS has assessed in the United States to date,” according to a statement.


“The fact that this is the largest assessment of continuous oil we have ever done just goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the USGS Energy Resources Program.
[...]

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2016-11-16

[Applejack]

. Btw, this is causing nightmares for accountants...for really boring reasons.

No way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Green Monstah]

According to this guy, the oil glut is artificial and we are heading for a major recession in 2018.

https://medium.com/insurge-intellige...86b#.b9g831viy

My friend (chemical engineer) tells me that we have barely scratched the surface on enhanced oil recovery technology. Who is right here?

Moliere? GM? '71? Bueller?

I mostly agree with Mol's post. The exploration (i.e. seismic tech), drilling, and fracing technologies are making oil available and profitable in ways you would not have imagined twenty years ago. The recent wolfcamp shale announcement demonstrates your Chem.Eng. friend's point: We have been drilling wells and exploring for oil in West Texas for the last 100 years. It's not like this was an area that was looked over, and yet, here we are in 2017 with billions of barrels of oil that enhanced technology allows us to recover. I don't know what the next level of technology looks like, but with the amount of money put into R&D in the industry, I can guarantee that another game changer will come along before peak oil occurs.

Internationally, horizontal development is not necessary in a lot of places. Once those conventional resources are exhausted, then the new and improved technology will be applied elsewhere, further extending the date for peak oil.

[Northwestcoug]

Was that before or after the shale oil discovery in west texas?


http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2016-11-16

I should have said traditional wells. My FIL did work in the oil sands of Alberta long before it became profitable. I know there is a lot of heavy oil available for extraction. He is now involved with offshore drilling, and I'm pretty sure he means that all the large 'traditional' (or whatever you call it) wells have been discovered.

[Green Monstah]

I should have said traditional wells. My FIL did work in the oil sands of Alberta long before it became profitable. I know there is a lot of heavy oil available for extraction. He is now involved with offshore drilling, and I'm pretty sure he means that all the large 'traditional' (or whatever you call it) wells have been discovered.

"conventional"

[Northwestcoug]

"conventional"

Thanks

[Moliere]

The oil being fraced out of the Permian is not heavy oil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Katy Lied]

Btw, this is causing nightmares for accountants...for really boring reasons.

Actually I am interested in these reasons. Is there an explanation less than 5 paragraphs?


Also I've been invited to the Middle East Heavy Oil Congress in Bahrain. Not that I'm going, but when did "heavy" become a common term? With the advent of massive shale oil extraction? Fracking?

[Dwight Schr-ute]

Neat!

Rick Perry.jpg

[Green Monstah]

Actually I am interested in these reasons. Is there an explanation less than 5 paragraphs?


Also I've been invited to the Middle East Heavy Oil Congress in Bahrain. Not that I'm going, but when did "heavy" become a common term? With the advent of massive shale oil extraction? Fracking?

Re: heavy: https://labs.weatherford.com/service...ry/api-gravity

A lot of the oil coming from the Uinta basin is heavy. The oil from the Williston basis/Bakken shale is heavy. As Mol said, not only is some of the stuff in the Permian basin not heavy, but it's surprisingly light, which is more valuable due to the increased quantity of higher-end refined products.

[Green Monstah]

Neat!

[ATTACH]7688[/ATTACH]

A terrible idea on many levels. Rick Perry was a successful governor of Texas because Texans are resistant to change, and Perry never really got much done. Perfect Texas governor; terrible policy maker and bureaucrat.

[Northwestcoug]

[Dwight Schr-ute]

LOL. Best Nauvoo Pageant ever.

[myboynoah]

That's pretty awesome.

[Northwestcoug]

LOL. Best Nauvoo Pageant ever.

I knew that routine looked familiar!