The “Conventional Wisdom.”
Oil doesn’t matter anymore. The “energy crisis” is not about a lack of oil; it’s about using enviro-wacko polices to change the United States, reducing it to the status of other countries in the world.
There are no calls for drilling new oil, ‘cept among a few politicians who are ignored by the MSM and the establishment.
The Green Kool-Aid has been consumed by Republicans and Democrats alike, including (especially) McCain.
The Media has won this battle.
Northwestern North Dakota oil development brings new wealth
Nov 11, 2007 - 04:04:45 CST
PARSHALL (AP) - Like an old woodsman gazing into a well-built campfire, Herb Geving stared into the steady, whooshing flame illuminating what once was pasture for his horses and playground for coyotes.
“Just look at it,” he said softly, lifting the broad brim of his cowboy hat to fully appreciate the intense red-orange flare licking high into the western Dakota night.
“They say the higher it flames, the more she’ll produce,” he said. “Just look at ‘er go!”
A nearly full moon rose in the southeast and joined the stars vainly trying to compete with the natural gas flaring from Geving’s new oil well, one of three he has an interest in, one of many now lighting the rangeland from Parshall northwest toward Stanley, one of perhaps hundreds to come in this new and rapidly developing oil field.
“I love to come out here and watch it, to be a part of it,” Geving said, adjusting the hat again, surveying the broad land and sky and the singular flames - his and the others that stretch to the horizon like landing lights for an isolated and seemingly endless runway.
“A millionaire by next fall,” he said.
It’s about as much as he will say about the windfall that will come to him, a retired rancher and garbage hauler who held onto the mineral rights on much of his land: holding and waiting until prices rose and the oil people found new ways to extract the riches below, making development profitable.
A neighbor whose well came in earlier received a check for $570,000, his share after four months of production, Geving said. As many as 30 wells are producing or soon will be in this new play area, “and they’re talking about putting in between 500 and 700,” he said.
“Going to be a lot of millionaires.”
People in the region “are just starting to see the potential” in this new oil play, said Gary Petersen, president of Lakeside State Bank in New Town, 16 miles west of Parshall.
“Overall, people are optimistic about what’s happening,” he said. “I haven’t seen a big oil check come through my bank yet, and folks aren’t running down the street giddy. That’s not the nature of people here. But there sure has been a lot of leasing activity and lots of reports of successful wells.
“The hope is that the extra activity will help supplement incomes and allow people to improve their lifestyles a little,” he said.
Seismographers tested the area, including Geving’s land, in the early 1970s.
“There was three guys come in here with a helicopter, and there was a lot of seismographing,” he said. Nothing came of that search then, “but I told my family we were going to have oil. I knew it was there. Now I can say, ‘I told you so.’”
Tim and Felicia Jarski, who work at the Reservation Telephone Cooperative in Parshall, said people who hold no mineral rights in the strike area may envy those who hit it rich, but they don’t resent them.
“It’ll change life for a few people,” said Tim Jarski, 48. “There are some landowners who don’t have mineral rights, and they’re worried their land will take a beating and they won’t get much compensation. I think most of the rest of us think it’s a good thing because it will create jobs and increase tax revenue.”
Parshall is a town of 1,027 (2005 estimate) that sits just inside the boundaries of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. About 55 percent of the population is American Indian. The 2000 census found the median household income at $24,500, with a little more than a fourth of the population living below the poverty line.
The city stands to make big money on the millions of gallons of water it’s selling to the well drillers, and the furious oil activity is bound to ripple through the local economy in other ways. A cafe is expected to reopen soon, and maybe someone will respond to the note posted in a window of the Parshall Public Library: “Wanted: Someone to take my place as librarian ... as soon as possible.”
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/11/11/news/state/142556.txt
It’s been discussed right here on FR for a couple of years now. Lots of old posts if you look. Also, the quote from the article (With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil) is pretty much a gross exaggeration. There may be that much oil total in those formations but conservative estimates for how much can be recovered range from 1% to 10%.
To prevent drilling, the demonrats will get this area declared a national wildlife refuge for the spotted snot flea.
The good people up here on the Dakota tundra are not swayed much by environmental wackos. The first new oil refinery in decades is moving forward in Elk Point, SD and the wackos haven’t derailed it yet. My only regret is my western South Dakota farm land is not on top of this oil formation. I guess I will have to wait for Ted Turner to make me an offer.
The traitorous imbecile DemoCommunist plague rats of the sicko dead ender Death Culture will soon start their sqealing, screeching, and feces throwing, accusing anyone who want to tap this oil of “species genocide”, and “ecological murder”, and “How dare we consider our own survival when the view for those who conquer us might have their view ruined!”.
Beware the Democrats! They not only want to be herded into death clinics and death camps, they want to drag everyone else in with them that they can.
We’d need at least a tarrif on foreign oil sufficient to KEEP this resource cost effective. Ideally we’d want to BAN the importation of oil.
Doesn’t matter - the evniromental nuts won’t let us take advantage.
Great news! Now we can supply the illegals with more work drilling wells.
Bling Ping for me
Why is there a North and South Dakota, anyway?
The only questions remaining on this oil formation is how much oil is there, how far it extends and how long the wells will produce.
The answers are likely to be 300 billion barrels (20% recoverable), 1,000 miles across (from southern Montana to central South Dakota to southern Manitoba to south central Saskatchewan) and the betting is that each well will last an average 10 years.
So far, the horizontal drilling and fracturing of the oil bearing rock layer has been a guaranteed money maker with returns on investment of 300%.
Does this mean we have to use 10 times as much corn to mix with the new oil? We’re all going to starve!
Is that a lot?
If a dem is elected this will sit there a few more million years.
700,000 barrels a day might be interesting.