Posted on 10/28/2009 3:48:41 PM PDT by saganite
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota has surpassed Louisiana as the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the nation, the U.S. Energy Department says.
The agency's Energy Information Administration said North Dakota produced 6.38 million barrels of crude in May, edging Louisiana, which had 6.34 million barrels for the month. Oklahoma was ranked fifth, at 5.7 million barrels for that month, according to the most recent figures. Oil production data typically lags at least two months.
Steven G. Grape, an Energy Department petroleum engineer, said Wednesday that North Dakota averaged 206,000 barrels daily in May, compared with 205,000 barrels for Louisiana.
North Dakota's oil production, pegged at 2.8 million barrels for May 2005, has risen sharply since then with improved horizontal drilling technology in the rich Bakken shale and Three Forks-Sanish formations in the western part of the state.
"In the Bakken and the Three Forks, they're having great success poking new holes," Grape said. "If you look at the increase, it doesn't look like it's letting up."
Energy Information Administration figures show Louisiana's oil production has slipped from 7.4 million barrels in May 2005. Grape said natural gas has overshadowed oil as a priority for drillers in Louisiana.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
ping
this is one of the best kept secrets in America today. Rsults since mid-year are even more encouraging.
That whole area is loaded with oil. New procedures and finds are now viable to the north in Saskatchewan.
Those new procedures are being adapted for drilling gas fields in the US and overseas. The leap in technology from drilling this oil isn’t limited to the Bakken. Whole new areas worldwide will be explored and exploited with the technology.
Until “Cap and Extortion” passes that is.
Shale oil requires heat to extract and it sounds like they are just sucking this oil out of the ground.
This is a state with two Democratic Senators. Wonder what the odds are for them supporting Cap & Trade?
More than Louisiana? Neat.
bump
“Dagny, they’re trying to kill North Dakota!”
I would love to know how a state like North Dakota ends up voting for two democrat senators.
Hmmm. How about them oil jobs? North Dakota’s unemployement rate is 4.2%. And the Democrats are trying like crazy to prohibit other states from drilling.
http://www.bls.gov/web/lauhsthl.htm
Is this the “fire in the hole” technology I’ve been reading about?
bump
“Peak Oil” is just as much of chimera as “Global warming”. Both are far more about command and control, big and Bigger government, and less liberty for the little people.
Because we have so many different hydrocarbons, from coal, crops, algae, and even sewage sludge, that can be converted to usable fuels, the only issue we have is the price of fuel at the pump.
With conversion technology, not only is oil fungible, but now hydrocarbons are too.
Elm Coulee MT and the Parsol ND areas have been the hot spots. How productive the average quarter section will turn out to be is the key to determining the real potential of the Bakken as the formation underlies a vast area.
“Oil shale” in contrast is kerogen, an immature pre oil waxy compound that does not flow.
Smokin’ Joe is the resident expert on the Bakken. He works there.
Hope that helped.
Peak oil! Peak oil! Peak oil! Peak oil! Peak oil!
Repeat over and over until convincing. /sarc
200,000 bbls per day is about 1 percent of US oil consumption. A good sized increment but not a game changer.
If the US can double production from where we are now, we could approach our 1970 peak production. From there, all we would need to do is about double production again to be self sufficient in oil. Please do not assume that this is going to happen. Produce oil now, but start thinking about what comes next and industiral scale that will be required to replace oil as a liquid fuel.
As of now, if you are seeking energy independence compressed natural gas has the most potential, but the rig count would need to vastly increased [and the price of natural gas correspondingly higher] for this to have any chance of occurring.
Rather than chanting about peak oil, I suggest you do some research.
First, please put the announced big finds into perspective. A billion barrel find represents about 12 days worth of production.
Second peak oil isn’t about the end of oil production. It is about production rates, which on a well by well, field by field and region by region diminish over time.
To stave off a peak, new frontiers are the key. The Brazilain sub salt, and the potential for something similar off the coast of Africa are the best hope at present. The Brazilian sub salt play is a technological marvel which means it won’t be cheap. 200 plus miles offshore. 7,000 feet of water, then 15,000 of seabed. The African analogy is merely a theory.
The latest big new frontier was the North Sea. It has peaked.
Wells peak. Fields peak. Regions peak. The world will peak -— the only question is “when?”.
If it makes any difference to you, please research the history of Saudi Arabian discoveries. Peak discovery was in the 60s. Of late (the last 25 years), they have been looking, then looking some more, but not finding their next super giant. By far the Saudi’s biggest finds in the last 30 years were political barrels. To take advantage of the OPEC quota system, they wrote up their reserves. Presto instant reserves. If only it were that easy. Is is easier to find an incremental barrel in Saudi Arabia than Texas? You bet, but it isn’t getting any easier as time passes and cumulative production progress.
Sleep well.
I believe the reference was to steerable extended horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Frac’ing isn’t new, but the size of some current frac jobs is amazing.
Fire in the hole? Down hole fire management [mostly through air injection] will do some very good things with some heavy oil deposits and may be the key to boosting Canadian oil sand production.
With conversion technology, not only is oil fungible, but now hydrocarbons are too."
The other constraint is the availability of inputs. Crop land and sewage are limited. The US has a lot of coal, but the capital and lead times required to have coal to liquids represent a significant amount of daily needs has a very long lead time. I am somewhat hopeful about algea, but it too has a long lead time and is unproven in scale ... and boy oh boy will scale be needed.
In addition, as you noted, alternatives will carry a price. That price, except possibly for compressed natural gas, will be steep.
I only have a very casual knowledge of the processes. You have a much greater grasp of what’s happening. Thanks.
200,000 is ND production and includes production from non Bakken formations. Overall Bakken production including that in Montana and possibly production from the formation in Canada as well (not too sure) is well north of 300,000. Your point about that level of production not being a game changer is well taken but the real story of the Bakken is not the production rates but the maturation of the technology used to get the oil out of the ground. The same technology is now being used in gas formations in the US and will be put to use soon in Europe. That’s the game changer.
Thanks for the ping!
Correct. The shale bed(s) sre the source rock, the oil is generally in tight sand/silt and/or dolomite layers in between the upper and lower Bakken Shales. Sometimes only one shale member is present, but the reaervoir is more conventional than an oil shale, just fairly tight.
Hope you’re still fully employed. Everthing I read says the Bakken is still humming and expanding. All the best.
I agree with you on the importance of long lateral horizontal wells and massive frac jobs as these technologies relate to natural gas. If it works in the Barnett Shale, it will work elsewhere [Fayetteville - check; Haynesville - check; Marcellous, Caney; etc.] I don’t think we are facing short term peak natural gas. We will need a lot more rigs and $5 a thousand cubic feet won’t cut it, but the gas is there and the technology is there.
Oil? These technologies work in certain circumstances — and other combinations which will work in formation types well beyond the Bakken, but in terms of short term versus long term peak oil, I am not optimistic.
The best hope in terms of oil are the various techniques that can be used to make heavy [often shallow] oil flow a little faster. These won’t necessarily change the timing of the peak, but may help to manage the decline.
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