Posted on 12/04/2012 2:36:11 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON—U.S. crude-oil production reached its highest level in nearly 15 years in September, thanks in large part to the drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.
Daily production averaged nearly 6.5 million barrels, the EIA said, an increase of about 900,000 barrels over September 2011.
The statistics reflect the growing role of the U.S. as a dominant energy producer. Last month, the International Energy Agency said the U.S. could overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest oil producer by 2020.
The EIA is slated to come out this week with an early draft of its annual report, which includes an assessment of U.S. production trends
The last time monthly U.S. production reached 6.5 million barrels a day was January 1998. The EIA said the states with the largest increases were Texas, with its Eagle Ford formation, and North Dakota, at the center of the Bakken Shale region. For decades, North Dakota produced fewer than 150,000 barrels a day, but that figure started surging in 2007 and reached 728,000 barrels a day in September.
The revolution in U.S. energy production is due mostly to hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. When coupled with horizontal drilling techniques, fracking has allowed energy companies to tap into shale formations and release pockets of oil and natural gas that had been considered unreachable.
Safety concerns about the drilling technique, especially with regard to its impact on drinking water, have prompted regulators to consider drilling guidelines.
The U.S. oil boom has some limitations. Fracking relies on relatively high oil prices to be economical, while major producers such as Saudi Arabia have access to huge reserves of cheap oil. .
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I notice we see these stories right after Obama is highly criticized for being anti-oil, and right BEFORE he is about to finally make his log-delayed decision on the Keystone pipeline.
If we are so awash in oil, why would he need that pipeline? Im suspicious of this story. It’s cover for the dictator.
Peak Oil, but not Peak Oil Taxes.
Geeez! Don’t tell the libs. Next they’ll hear that there is a Santa Claus and his name is NOT Obama. They’ll die of fright.
With such a oil rush in place in the dakotas and Texas, there will be a oil boom that Obama has fought tooth and nail all the way. There are bills right now on his desk that would pave the way, but like the Republicans, Obama will not budge without a healthy kickback.
So the Corrupt Zero will get rich, and in the end, will claim the boost to the economy as his. The sad thing is, that more than half of the country will be on EBT’s and will believe anything he says... And pass the bong sitting on the couch.
And you will be paying $15/gallon for gas as all that disappears into the world market to the highest bidder.
Obama didn’t build this.
I bet most of the new production is on private lands. Obama and his cronies at the EPA are most likely looking for a way to shut that down.
The one little bright spot in an otherwise dismal outlook for the next four years is constantly being able to throw that back in the bastards face.
FACT: There is enough oil in shale and oil sands in North America to fuel the entire yearly North American usage for at least the next two thousand, yes I said 2000 years.
I’ll bet the dimocrats will try their darndest to stop this new domestic production. Them and their environmentalist wacko friends will try to stop any good idea that can’t be controlled by the gubermint.
. . A philosophical question. Why are liberals wrong about EVERYTHING? It would seem that once in a while they would screw up and swerve into a sane position. But it never happens. They are bellwethers for stupid, evil, and wrongheaded ideas.
Can I have a show of hands, please? Who remembers the Demoncrats saying 8-12 years ago that drilling wasn’t the answer to high gas prices because “it takes 8-10 years to get wells into production”?
Well, they apparently were right - this is Bush’s fault.
I believe we may be seeing the benefits of this already. Gas prices locally have taken several .10 drops lately, the latest today, down to $3.40 to the gallon.
Or maybe the Exxon Fairrie has taken the last couple months off.
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