Posted on 05/21/2014 6:41:36 PM PDT by Praxeologue
Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California's vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum.
Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation's oil future and to projections that an oil boom would bring as many as 2.8 million new jobs to California and boost tax revenue by $24.6 billion annually.
The Monterey Shale formation contains about two-thirds of the nation's shale oil reserves. It had been seen as an enormous bonanza, reducing the nation's need for foreign oil imports through the use of the latest in extraction techniques, including acid treatments, horizontal drilling and fracking.
The energy agency said the earlier estimate of recoverable oil, issued in 2011 by an independent firm under contract with the government, broadly assumed that deposits in the Monterey Shale formation were as easily recoverable as those found in shale formations elsewhere.
The estimate touched off a speculation boom among oil companies. The new findings seem certain to dampen that enthusiasm.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I don’t believe this at all.
Most of the rich deposits were said to be near Big Sur, some of the most pittoresque driving vistas in the USA.
I think there was absolutely ENORMOUS pressure to downplay the promise of Monterey Shale.
With N0bama’s war on coal and banning/severely limiting the drilling for oil and natural gas on federally owned lands, I have great doubts about the validity of this “new” estimate. It nicely shows “no oil here, go away.”
And California greenies will like it since it prevents “pollution” of their beaches and land.
I just don’t trust the source.
What do people who know something about extracting oil say?
Who is applying the pressure? Tom Steyer and the enviros? It is the oil companies who are losing interest. Sacramento wants the revenue and has set up a process toward drilling approvals.
“the new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation’s oil future and...”
will make it easier to make the area a national park.
Riiight. What buttons were pushed to make this report come out? They are likely lying to stop oil production there.
Anti fossil fuel rats at work behind the scenes,
Yes, the technology is not in place yet to extract this oil... but hopefully on day California liberals will get the brain transplants they so desperately need and then the drilling may start.
Next they will recalculate Bakken at 96% as well.
and just how reliable are “Federal energy authorities?”
“Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology”
Ok, how about TOMMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY.
10 years ago, all the millions of barrels of oil and gas that were “unrecoverable” by yesterday’s tech are now recoverable in the Marcellas and Eagle Ford shale formations.
Very convenient “technical adjustment” to the data. Gee, it’s only a 96% change in what the administration told us yesterday. What’s so unusual about that?
Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, which dominates Williston Basin fracking, says that “they haven’t cracked the code in the Monterey”.
The oil industry, however, was hardly ready to hoist a white flag.
Tupper Hull, vice president of the Western States Petroleum Association, an oil industry trade group, said, “We’ve always been quite clear that there are challenges to producing oil out of the Monterey” Shale that set it apart from shale formations already tapped in North Dakota, Texas and elsewhere. “I have every confidence that the oil companies possess the experience and the ability to innovate. If anyone can figure it out, they can figure it out.”
Severin Borenstein, who directs the University of California Energy Institute, said “this is definitely a huge setback to the expansion of oil production in California, but I would not at all say the game is over. ... It is way too early to say that this is the death of fracking in California. Technology only moves forward, and I am sure there is going to be millions of dollars spent trying to make it better specifically for California because there is so much potential.”
A University of Southern California analysis — funded partly by Hull’s association, based partly on Energy Information Administration data and released in March 2013 — had estimated the Monterey Shale could help California create up to 2.8 million new jobs and generate up to $24.6 billion per year in new tax revenue by 2020.
In May 2013, Brown said “the fossil fuel deposits in California are incredible, the potential is extraordinary.” Environmental groups urged Brown to support a fracking moratorium, but the governor resisted. In September, he signed a law creating new fracking regulations, including a permitting process, notification of neighbors, public disclosure of chemicals used and groundwater- and air-quality monitoring.
Typical California energy mentality. Energy is created “somewhere else” and magically delivered to Californians in limitless quantities at no cost.
I have to laugh at all the comments here calling this report BS...
We’ve fallen quite a way from trusting any US official. LOL.
Typical California energy mentality. Energy is created “somewhere else” and magically delivered to Californians in limitless quantities at no cost.
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