Energy Myths

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ^ | 7/3/2008 | IBD Editorial

[Figment]

Shale oil deposits. These were not producing oilwells to begin with. Conventional wells are not “capped” they are “plugged”.

[Figment]

“Plugged usually means pumping a few tons of concrete into them, while temporarily abandoned means setting bridge plugs at various depths. Most states limit the amount of time you can keep a well temporarily abandoned”

Exactly. If wells were simply capped as many think of the term, our aquifers would be severely contaminated with leaked crude oil

[Big Horn]

You are correct about the expense of getting the oil to the surface. Most of the activity in the oil patch around here is methane gas. I doubt if there are many oil rigs available to drill since the gov made the oil business jump thru so many hoops. The oil people have the whole area mapped so they know what is there.
The oil shale will require huge investments and a source of water.
What assurance do the investors have, if they roll the dice and have some success, that noboma will not have the gov. take over the oil business after he is sworn in.

[Dog Gone]

I never want to come across as condescending, but at soon as someone here refers to “capped” oil wells, you might as well quit reading because they’re just spouting off about something they know nothing about.

The only reason for plugging or abandoning an oil well is because it’s no longer producing enough oil to make a profit. It’s true that at today’s prices, the amount of oil it must produce is less to be profitable, but it’s simply not the case that you can “uncap” an oil well and start counting the profit.

There’s a huge upfront investment to that, and I don’t know of anyone who has thought it made good sense to re-enter a well that can make only three barrels of oil a day.

Keep in mind that these wells are also likely to be producing hundreds of barrels of water a day in addition. That’s not fresh water you can just pour on the ground. It’s contaminated water or salt water, and you have to pay to have someone truck it off and inject it into a disposal well. Not cheap.