Energy Tomorrow Blog
Posted March 10, 2014
Fracking Uses Lots of Water? Hardly
Real Clear Energy: For some reason, hydraulic fracking has gotten a reputation for using a lot of water. Not so, says Economic Policies for the 21st Century at the Manhattan Institute. When you look at the actual amount of water used in the process, hydraulic fracking comes out at the bottom of the list. As the report observes, "It takes twice as much water to maintain a golf course for a month than to frack a natural gas well."
Don't forget, all other energy resources use a lot of water, too. Biofuels is the biggest offender, since huge amounts of water are required to process and dilute the organic material. When the irrigation water needed to grow the crops is included, biofuels consume in excess of 2500 gallons of water per million BTU. (That may be cheating a bit since some advanced biofuel crops may not require irrigation, but the current corn crop, the source of all our ethanol, is heavily irrigated.) All forms of oil drilling require lots of water since water usually has to be added once a well passes maturity.
Posted February 25, 2014
American Shale Gas and Tight Oil: Reshaping the Global Energy Balance
IHS Unconventional Energy Blog: The development of shale gas and tight oil in the United States constitutes an “unconventional revolution,” owing to its scale and speed. It is already having a profound global impact: upending energy markets, reshaping competitiveness in the world economy, and portending major shifts in global politics.
The unconventional revolution was born out of advances in two technologies. Hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — was introduced at the end of the 1940s. Efforts to apply this technique to dense shale in Texas began in the early 1980s. But it took two decades to perfect the combination of fracking and horizontal drilling that would drive the new boom. And it wasn’t until 2008 that these techniques began to have a major impact.
Since then, however, growth has been remarkable. Shale gas currently accounts for nearly half of U.S. natural gas production, and U.S. prices have fallen to one third of European levels and one-fifth of Asian levels. Tight oil, produced with the same techniques as shale gas, has led to a 60 percent rise in U.S. oil production since 2008. This increase of three million barrels per day is larger than the national output of nine of the 13 OPEC countries. The International Energy Agency predicts that the U.S. will soon overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s largest oil producer.
Posted February 10, 2014
How the U.S. Energy Boom is Changing America’s Place in the World
Time: It wasn’t even five years ago that Iran reelected hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a disputed presidential election, openly admitted it was building a uranium enrichment facility and brazenly test-fired missiles capable of hitting targets in Israel. Fast-forward to today: A more conciliatory president, Hassan Rouhani, is making historic overtures toward the West and negotiations are showing rare progress toward containing the country’s nuclear program, which has kept the region—and the world—on edge for years.
The difference, according to former Obama administration National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, can be summed up in one word: “fracking.” That’s hydraulic fracturing, the drilling method that’s helped fuel an unprecedented domestic energy boom in the United States.
“There’s a direct line between the U.S.-led sanctions effort to put pressure on Iran” and the flood of oil and gas coming out of the ground at home due to fracking technology, Donilon said Thursday night at an event announcing a new report from the Center for a New American Security, titled “Energy Rush: Shale Production and U.S. National Security.”
Before the North American energy boom—the largest-ever annual increase in domestic oil production took place in 2012—a harsh sanctions regime against Iran looked more like a suicide pact for the oil-import-dependent U.S. Instead, America’s sudden energy abundance dampened the blow of reduced oil exports to the global economy, making truly harsh sanctions on Iran possible.
Read more: http://ti.me/1eKvYKd
Posted January 27, 2014
Free America’s Energy Future: Drop Washington’s Counterproductive Oil and Natural Gas Ban
Forbes (Doug Bandow): For years people have been told to expect a dismal energy future. But because of rapid free market innovation, Americans now can look forward to a future of energy abundance. The U.S. could even become a leading exporter—if Washington gets out of the way.
Successive presidents and Congresses imposed controls, approved subsidies, created bureaucracies, and issued proclamations. The most common commitment was to achieve “energy independence.” But President Ronald Reagan set the stage for today’s energy advances by unilaterally eliminating oil price controls and pushing Congress to drop natural gas price and use restrictions.
His successors, however, have regressed back to expensive social engineering. George W. Bush declared war on the common light bulb. Barack Obama poured billions into the coffers of well-connected alternative energy firms, several of which, such as Solyndra, have gone bankrupt. And everyone continued to support the authoritarian Gulf kleptocracies, led by Saudi Arabia, to ensure access to imported oil.
Yet an energy revolution is underway. Observed Mark P. Mills, an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, “The game-changing technologies that have emerged involve hydrocarbons: natural gas, oil, and coal.” Major advances have been made in locating and extracting resources—such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—and operating in more distant and hostile environments.
Read more: http://onforb.es/1f7kRXN
Posted October 18, 2013
Amid Oil Boom, Petroleum Exports Surge
National Journal: RICHMOND, Calif. – It takes about a month for oil to arrive from the Middle East to a refinery here on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. On a clear day, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance from the refinery's pier, but you will probably notice first and foremost the massive tankers docked and unloading oil into a web of pipes.
About 60 percent of the oil processed by this refinery, owned and operated by Chevron, comes from the Middle East. Most of the rest comes from Alaska, also by tanker. But the oil coming in is not as interesting as what is going out. Many companies are beginning to turn around and export the refined gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
"As the economy has taken a hit, as vehicle efficiency standards have lowered the demand for fuel, California refineries in aggregate can now produce more than the local demand and therefore products are beginning to be exported," said Dave Reeves, president of global supply and trading at Chevron.
Read more: http://bit.ly/H1RtaF
Posted October 16, 2013
U.S. Becomes World’s Top Oil Producer in 2013, Group Says
Bloomberg: The U.S. is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world biggest total supplier of oil this year when natural gas liquids and biofuels are added to crude, PIRA Energy Group said.
The U.S. is projected to produce an average of 12.1 million barrels a day of liquids in 2013, 300,000 barrels a day higher than Saudi Arabia and 1.6 million more than Russia, according to data presented at PIRA’s Retainer Client Seminar Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 in New York.
The U.S. position has improved because of surging “shale oil” output, the New York-based energy consultant said. The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has unlocked supplies in shale formations in the central part of the country. Shale liquids output has climbed 3.2 million barrels a day in the last four years, the biggest gain since Saudi Arabia raised production between 1970 and 1974.
“This isn’t a big surprise but notable all the same,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. “This is another sign of the successful story that is horizontal drilling.”
Read more: http://bloom.bg/1fDiyzu
Posted October 7, 2013
Is NY Fracking a Good Idea? Look at Pennsylvania
CNBC: First was Texas. Next came Pennsylvania and North Dakota. Could New York become the next U.S. shale hotspot?
It's a tantalizing prospect for some, given that the Empire State sits atop not one but two prolific shale formations, the Marcellus and the Utica. According to the most recent data from the United States Geological Survey, both have more than a combined 100 trillion cubic feet of estimated natural gas reserves.
Should New York overcome its deep reluctance to drill for natural gas, some experts say the state has the potential to ride a wave of domestic production—one credited with creating thousands of natural gas-related jobs nationwide. But so far at least, New York has given an ear to environmental interests that point to dangers around accessing the reserves, especially the hydraulic process known as "fracking."
Read more: http://cnb.cx/15Wtrnh
Jane Van Ryan
Posted March 19, 2010