Tap This: New drilling method opens vast oil fields in US

[Analog]

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.


Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]oil [COLOR=#366388 ! important]deposits[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.


This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.
"That's a significant contribution to [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]energy [COLOR=#366388 ! important]security[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]," says Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/us_shale_oil_3

 

[Homerboy]

Cool.
So gas prices (and profits) will only double instead of triple!

 

[SunnyD]

Yet it won't cause prices to go down and only serve to rip up the environment in those states even more than we already have. Way to go, progress! Making corporations richer one welfare case at a time.

 

[sandorski]

There's a lot of risk to Ground Water with that method.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Good, but it WILL eventually run out .. needs to spend those billions on finding new sources of energy.

 

[DesiPower]

damn, wasn't franking for gas not enough... now oil too... we are fucked.

heres why

 

[zinfamous]

awesome. so more bigass holes to taint the water we can't see instead of tainting the water that we do see.

Sweet!

 

[Lifted]

My company also has another new method for getting oil... more more more.

 

[JTsyo]

Better be careful or someone will invade us for our oil :sneaky:

 

[Schadenfroh]

Good, but it WILL eventually run out .. needs to spend those billions on finding new sources of energy.

And the only company that can pull it off is Exxon, maybe Chevron.

$ub$idize the risk, taxpayers, they are committed to alternative energy.

 

[bobdole369]

Is it Burns' Slant Drilling?

 

[Squisher]

Anybody watch the documentary Gasland? You can watch it in parts on youtube.

Hydraulic fracturing is bad.

 

[rivan]

damn, wasn't franking for gas not enough... now oil too... we are fucked.

heres why

It's not supposed to... do that.

D:

 

[iGas]

It is not a new thing in the oil & gas sector.

The shale gas cracking technique isn't new, and it is being utilizing however they still have many more hurdles to overcome before it is a common practice. IMHO, it might take an additional 20~30 years before they can extract oil using shale cracking technique if getting oil out of shale is possible.

 

[Electric Amish]

Yeah, this is bad....I watched "CSI"

 

[SunnyD]

Is it Burns' Slant Drilling?

No, it's fracking. They drill down, then send in pressurized water and/or charges to fracture the bedrock so the resource they're looking for seeps out of the fractured bedrock into the well.

 

[Zedtom]

In Colorado water is the prized resource. There are probably more lawyers specialized in water law than there are oil company attorneys. Big oil would like to push everybody out of the way to get oil out of shale rock, but those pesky environmentalists and the god damned water lawyers keep getting in their way.

 

[Patranus]

Its a shame the "progressives" in government will never allow this new drilling method to see the light of day.

Its so nice how they say we need to "get off" foreign energy and then stone wall all economically viable options.

 

[AlienCraft]

Anybody watch the documentary Gasland? You can watch it in parts on youtube.

Hydraulic fracturing is bad.

I did and I got depressed.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Its a shame the "progressives" in government will never allow this new drilling method to see the light of day.

Its so nice how they say we need to "get off" foreign energy and then stone wall all economically viable options.

By "progressives", you mean people that like clean ground water, which in Texas is just about everyone.

Idiot.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Its a shame the "progressives" in government will never allow this new drilling method to see the light of day.

Its so nice how they say we need to "get off" foreign energy and then stone wall all economically viable options.

at first blush, this seems to have devastating consequences. are you saying these consequences are worth it to delay the inevitable?

 

[amddude]

Fucking great, so now we have "fracking" for oil?

 

[sandorski]

By "progressives", you mean people that like clean ground water, which in Texas is just about everyone.

Idiot.

Nah, go ahead with this. Eventually we'll just sell y'all Oil and Water!

 

[Lemon law]

Wait, "Hydraulic fracturing is bad." When its not merely bad its absolutely horrible.

Hydraulic fracturing has some economic benefits that are far out weighted by its environmental downsides.

 

[amddude]

Its a shame the "progressives" in government will never allow this new drilling method to see the light of day.

Its so nice how they say we need to "get off" foreign energy and then stone wall all economically viable options.

I'm quite conservative and you need to do some research on this. It is very, very destructive to water supplies and air.