CRUDE OIL forum: Oil in California
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I was watching CNBC a few days ago. They were talking about oil (of course) and Occidental Petroleum. In mid-2009 OXY found a very large oil field in Kern County, CA. (aside: would you believe there is a city in Kern County CA called Oildale?) It's estimated that the find could be the biggest in 35 years with up to 250 million barrels. Remember, the U.S. burns through 20 million barrels a day  Here's an article from the L.A. Times. I am surprised to read that "CA is fourth in the nation behind the combined federal offshore drilling sites and Texas and Alaska". http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/24/business/fi-cal-oil2... News Release from OXY in 2009 http://newsroom.oxy.com/portal/site/oxy/?ndmViewId=news_view... "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| I can't remember which station I was watching, PBS or Bloomberg TV, but I was encouraged that they were saying that a handful of business leaders were now pointing out how profoundly silly it is to call a pool of 250 million bbls of oil a big find by any measure. And for precisely the reason you give. We need to see how profoundly huge our need for energy has become. And we need to adopt very aggressive measures to assure that renewable energy sources are developed quickly. Big by any measure, the Bakken shale field in N Dakota is big. It is said to contain up to 500 barrels of oil . If you believe the numbers. That's about 2000 times as much oil as the Oxy find. So, if you believe the numbers that's about 20,000 day's supply or almost five decade's worth of oil. That should give us some wiggle room as we develop alternative numbers. Of course, the estimate was never published. The guy who wrote it is dead and blacklisted by the USGS. Again, if you believe this site. http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:North_American_Oil_Fi... . The same site is writing about cold fusion. So believe at your own risk. Wikipedia lists estimates of economically recoverable oil in the Bakken field ranging from 2 billion barrels to as much as 32 billion barrels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_formation . (Reads some more...) But the devil is in the details. The Bakken formation has low porosity and permeability which makes removing the oil that is there devilishly difficult. Only fracturing technologies developed in the last fifteen years are capable of making the fields productive. So there is a great debate about how much actually can be extracted economically. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3868. An interesting sidenote is that the writer above estimates the "energy" return on investment at between 6 and 12. Horizontal drilling and fracturing are costly. If the accounting of energy return on investment for ethanol from sweet sorghum is done in a consistent way, then we are not far away from that becoming an economical resource. |
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| Thanks, Steve. I would think that all drilling entities should refrain from using describers such as "big", "huge". It's misleading. I can see why a driller such as OXY would do it (I think they spoke of it in relative terms -- ... largest find in 35 years. But, still a small find, relatively speaking). It brings attention to the stock price of the publicly held company, at best. And, too, when added to the total "pool" ( I like that term ) it can make a difference. It might be interesting to know the total potential of recoverable oil in the U.S. ... and what percentage Texas and Alaska hold. However, like you point out, the sweet sorghum alternative will support some need. And, let's not forget the algae! "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| Susie, I like the word "pool" to describe the body of recoverable oil, too. I must say that before you put up these pages I was skeptical about the whole algae thing. I believed that it would be fifty years before anything would come of it. But what I've seen here has begun to change my mind. I've been meaning to thank you for it. |
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Fabulous, Steve!  I mean this to be a forum to really educate ourselves on the issue of energy. The word is bandied about so much in the news, used as a weapon between the parties, states, countries, kingdoms.... but what is really being DONE to develop new technologies, where is the wisdom, where are the wise men and what are the real solution-makers? The brilliant young people doing research that may or may not lead to anything at all but at least they are trying and challenged with an important task. The scientists really know what is happening and how to fix it... albeit, they can be political, too. But, at least we need to know that all options are on the table. I'm am particularly happy to know that the U.S. Dept. of Energy is so active. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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