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| Some good news for a change |
| 2017-03-18 |
| h/t Instapundit The U.S. shale cowboys are back on their horses and leading a strong recovery in the oil patch that is not expected to falter even as WTI prices dropped last week below $50 per barrel for the first time in more than two months. With lessons learned from the oil price crash and budgets streamlined and focused on the most prolific shale plays, U.S. drillers are giving OPEC a hard time by raising output and hedging future production. Meanwhile, the cartel members are trying to cut supply and fix the price of oil at such a range that would allow them to reap higher oil revenues, but not allow the shale patch to recover too much too fast. Two and a half months into the supply-cut deal, it looks like OPEC is losing the campaign to prop up oil prices. The drop in prices that began last week saw them retreating to almost exactly the same level as on November 30 ‐ just below $52/barrel for Brent - when the OPEC deal was announced, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Wednesday. At the same time, reduced breakeven prices in many shale plays and forward locking-in of production is allowing the companies currently drilling in the U.S. to turn in profits even at a price of oil at $40 a barrel. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #7 I haven't read recent stuff on fracking and earthquakes, but the early stuff was pretty good - and fracking of the rock - pumping a slurry of liquid and proppant at high pressure to generate and propagate a fracture from a well out into the reservoir rock - creates 'earthquakes' far too small to feel, or even detect without very sensitive instruments. However, if the induced fracture intersects an existing fault that is close to the stress needed for it to slip, the pulse of pressure from the frac could trigger a quake, one that would probably have occurred naturally in a geologically short time. I am not aware of any evidence of such actually having happened, but I admit I am not current. There are a class of similar earthquakes that have been documented, though it was not the frac pulse but the far larger volumes of produced water being pumped into disposal wells that triggered them. The disposal wells may be handling water from fracked wells (documented case near FW airport), or any other wells (seem likely in several recent OK quakes), or even industrial process waste water. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-03-18 22:20 |
| #6 Anybody read the definitive report linking fracking and earthquakes? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-03-18 20:48 |
| #5 If the world is a better place to live in 20 years, a large part of the credit will have to go to fracking. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2017-03-18 16:58 |
| #4 Besides what Nero White commented on in new fracking conditions this time around, we have a President that encourages this type of enterprise and development. With this one-two punch, OPEC gets up against the ropes, having to dig into their financial assets to maintain the status quo for their rubes. It is very good news. And as far as the ME oil ticks going back to Bedouins again, that will be difficult because their aquifer left over from the Pleistocene and many springs and oases have dried up from the lowered water table. It's a good day today, folks. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2017-03-18 16:56 |
| #3 The Democrats will struggle to find some way mess up fracking. I think though that Trump is leading up to an Andrew Jackson moment on them all. |
| Posted by: Jeasing Creque5352 2017-03-18 15:34 |
| #2 Ain't the free market grand? Good thing Obumble didn't figure out a way to tax it to death. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2017-03-18 14:57 |
| #1 The first go round required purchasing the fracking trucks, etc.. With plenty to go around now, maintenance and operations costs is manageable at lower barrel prices. |
| Posted by: Nero White 3083 2017-03-18 14:34 |