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Chart of the Day - Alaska Oil Production
Perception versus the reality of peak oil.
I asked 10 Americans the question, "How is oil production going up in Alaska?" Nine said they do not know, and one said great. Here is the truth in my personal Chart of the Day.
Alaska produces about 10% of the oil in the US.
It once was producing over 60,000,000 barrels per day month (now can you all get over the typo and look at the chart?), but Alaska now produces less than 18,000,000 barrels, or not even one third of what it once did.
Change is indeed coming to America. It just is not the type of change that sells Chevy Suburbans, McMansions, Disney cruises, or airfairs, so do not expect to hear or read about it in the mainstream media.
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If Lindsey Williams is right this will change dramatically, but Americans will still have to pay as much or more for it as they currently do on imports (unless the American people grows some balls and nationalize their resource instead of having british BP rake in all the profits - hey America will probably be fully "socialized" by then anyways).
The debate about global warming is not about whether or not it is happening.
The answer (at least today) is un disputedly yes. The debate is about MANKIND's INFLUENCE on it.
Is global warming a natural phenomenon... yes.
Does mankind contribute to this phenomenon... most likely yes. But is probablly not the primary driver (IMO)
In my eyes the two bigest (man made) contenders are Roads and artifical waterways.
Water is being funneled into more concentrated areas or out to sea.... thus causing further enviromental degradation.
Roads put tens of thousands of square miles of SUBSURFACE ROCK on the surface where they absorb and refelct radiant energy. Before roads... subsurface rock was mainly... (you guessed it) below the surface and didn't radiate as much heat throughoght the night.
But then again... africa is not nearly as 'developed' as the united states (think roads, powerlines, waterways, dams, etc...) and it is also suffering from the same effects....
IMO.. they are both responsible... but mankind cannot stop global warming.... we can stop global resource 'degredation' and there is a huge difference.
Global warming? …. Great Lakes Area turns into the tropics? Is there anyway we can speed this up?
Did we have an ice age with glaciers?
Was it cold when we had the glaciers?
Do we have the glaciers now?
Is it warmer now?
If you graphed the temperature from when we had glaciers all over the place to now - would the line go up or down?
Did man make the glaciers go away?
Anyways: Global Climate Change Chart
in the North Pole there is an area the size of France which is pumping out methane in the atmosphere.
No one talks about this
Not quite.... we'll pick up on this later though... I promise, 'kay?
Clearing forest areas in the tropics is also a biggie.
You take a green jungle that transpires all this tropical rain and actually cools the tropical climate, and replace it with brown dirt that supports crops for a couple years, and then just washes away in the rain, leaving depleted laterites. A lose-lose-lose for the life of the earth for a very short term profit in soybeans or corn or sugar cane.
Gee Wally sure everyone making minimum wage can afford a $50k electric vehicle with subrime 30 year contracts rights?
You people may argue there's too many people on the planet etc but the fact of the matter is with all the $ the banks have blown combined with our potential talent that has been locked up.............I wouldn't doubt if generations as far as the eye can see could have had a quality of life making it worth to live.
But no we can't have that can we? The elites have destroyed everything and own everything. Now we're all going to pay the price for their over the top mega-greed. Even if we changed our evil ways(which they won't, only we can change their ways) there's the all important "time factor". Tick tock!
Someone accused me of being an armchair revolutionary today. Well? What are alternatives? Look at Greece. Burn the whole fkn country down and still have politicians voting your life away?
We're screwed there's no getting around it.
If you're going to take up that arguement,
make it with the Chinese, Brazilians and Indians.
BTW yes Alaska oil is in the news it's just taken another form "We are now going to build natural gas vehicles." I wonder how far you could get on a 5 gallon take of natural gas? I sure's the hell don't want a 100 gallon time bomb strapped to each side of my Yugo with panduit straps!!
You know there are engineers out there that had the novel idea of not needing 5,000lbs of steel to get from point A to point B and designed a 2 seater car with a 2 cylinder that hits 100mph on like 60mpg. I don't know the exact specs but it is something similar to that. I'll put a 1200cc Harley sportster engine in mine with a stage 3. lmao! If they don't even want to go the "lightweight" route and straight to natural gas that's bad. That means the military wants all the oil that is going to be left. Or something like that lol.
Nice HH...Way to contribute...
So let me ge this right. No global warming? Check. Unlimited petroleum? Check. Santa Claus comes at Christmas? Check. Radiation exposure has positive health benefits? Check. A little shit in our food makes us healthier? Check. Declining species worldwide is not our fault? Check. I guess its good I live on this planet instead of one that actually had some problems.
You are right about everything except global climate warming change. I would say that one is up for debate.
I hope everyone who doesn't think peak oil is real buys a McMansion in the suburbs and a new Escalade, because when you are stranded out in a godforsaken land with your baby mama, a stupid crappy crib, and a sick whip, don't come talking to me.
News item:
Not everyone (me for example) on Planet Earth that hasn't swallowed the Peak Oil Hypothesis wants a McMansion and a new Escalade.
Also, some that have swallowed the POH profess to wanting the Escalade.
Therefor, it is suggested that there is not necessarily a correlation.
Touche
Hey, Sunshine, how about a little less negativity? They gave us Caribou Barbie, so who are we to demand more from them?
Besides, we don't have the capability to crack Alaskan crude here, so we sell it to Japan, and they only need so much.
Instead of pulling "facts" out of your ass, why don't you sit back, shut up and learn from people that actaully know something about oil.....
Looks like we are over run with Infowarriors and Drudgers all of a sudden.
Sometimes one forgets the level of what passes as rational thought in the comment section of most web sites....
in ye old public school, learned Russia sold it to the US, as a fool to Seward, for a penney an acre, across Alaska proper, and became a pauper
We don't need the extra oil. World demand is down and the USA exports more petroleum products than it consumes. There is more than enough capacity sitting unused for years in hedge fund held storage. The market is broken and $100 oil has destroyed the economy. Only print till it can't print no more Ben has kept the market floating higher. I know if I could access unlimited money with 0% interest I would invest it for guaranteed returns, keeping the profit and paying back the principal every time. DEATH TO TRADERS AND BANKERS IS THE ONLY SOLUTION LEFT.
The US imports about on a net basis about 9 million barrels of oil a day... on a NET basis it exports about 200,000 barrels a day of refined products...
Either you are stupid, you have been fooled/misled, or you are lying... I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and say you have been misled...
Now, anytime you hear a claim on the MSM about anything to do with energy, go to theoildrum.com and get properly informed about what was said or claimed....
Thanks for the detail FM. but it was silly of you to waste time explaining stuff to a fucktard.
ZH is getting more popular but , at the same time, appealing to the uninformed and plain stupid.
Ignore them.
Hopefully they will choke to death on their cornflakes and end their pointless and dreary existence, saving the world oxygen in the process.
Check out Matt Simmons "Twilight in the Desert" about the fall off in Saudi production. If Simmons was right and the Saudis are all ready in decline then there will be some rough times in front of us. Unfortunately Mr. Simmons was found dead in his hot tub a while back.
transformer:
In most locations on earth, if you try to drill a well 42,000 feet deep, you will hit magma before you get there. The stuff is very difficult for blowout preventers, I hear ....
but don't let facts get in the way of your pretty theories...
--luddite
heck, let me also point out to you that since the second world war, oil is almost always discovered in places which are sparsely populated ... we can save the discussion for why that happens for another time ... but just in case you are not aware of this, Russia just happens to own title to more of that species of real estate than any other nation on earth ....
I'll try again, the sky isn't falling.....
US production is climbing and reversed a decades long decline......
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS1&f=M
gt4....you're as fucking stupid as roadhazard below. I just got through schooling him....now it's your turn.
The shale oil/gas play is the new bubble. Everyone was wondering what the next bubble would be after housing. It was for a time green energy.....now it's the shale play.
The EROEI of shale will never come close to the oil we extracted during the last 100 years. There is not enough shale oil/gas to replace all the cheap oil we have already extracted.
And to make matters worse....every time you turn around there is a new DOWNGRADE announced as to the total amount of gas/oil in the shale play. This DOES NOT INCLUDE ECONOMICALLY VIABLE EXTRACTION just total amounts which are bad enough.
Here's your reading lesson junior.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8900
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-02-05/falling-feeling-shale-gas-e...
Do you see that little bump back in 1980 or so? That was Prudhoe Bay ramping up.... the biggest oil field ever found in the US of A.... Still didn't get us above the 1970 peak...
Call me when the Bakken gets to 1.4 mmbpd, ok? By that time, it just may compensate for declining flows in shallow GOM and Alaska...
Now run along and take another hit off the hopium pipe...
With $100 oil it is profitable to go back a rework old fields that were shut down when oil was below $10. Along with tight oil being horizontally drilled and frack'd in the Bakken etc, we are seeing a small rebirth in American oil production. The chart you refer to shows 25 Million new barrels of production per month. Don't get me wrong, I think its awesome, but that only reduces our imports by 6%. This helps but is not a game changer.
I live in West Texas,have friends and family in the oilfeilds.When oil went above $125 per barrel a few years ago,they reworked a LOT of old wells.It made sense to rework a well that only produces 2-4 barrels per day.Most of these "stripper" wells produce more salt water than oil,so you have to dispose of more waste than you get in oil.You can see the eventual problem here.As for Alaska,the US gets NO oil from there.It all goes to Japan,primarily,where their refineries are set up for that particular variety of crude.
As for those of you who don't believe me,ask a politician who wants to drill in national parks,or have tar sands oil piped across our country,
if they will favor a law that says that ONE DROP of that oil be required to go to the US,and you will hear about how oil is "fungible".In other words,the answer is NO!
As they say in the oilfeilds,IF YOU AREN'T ROUGHNECK,YOU AIN'T SHIT!
>> It once was producing over 60,000,000 barrels per day ???
It should be 60,000,000 barrels per month, 2million barrels per day.
and don't forget Iran will be getting nukes!
I only expect to hear about what Gizell said about Tom, booo hooo hooo
Of course Alaska is producing less oil. THERE IS NO DEMAND and there is going to be less demand as even more traders jump back into the commodities mkt. and drive the price further up. Start a Mid East war and oil will be so high that now will seem like boom times.
Unless you can accept delivery of barrels of oil you are a gouging terrori$t $peculator in my book.
roadhazard.....you are so fucking stupid as to not be really worth responding to but I'm a little bit S&M so here goes.
Slowly look at the chart again.
I emphasize slowly.....don't concentrate on the pretty red color.....just the data points.
Now.....look at where the peak point is......around 1988.
Now are you seriously saying that demand for oil not just in America but worldwide which would include demand for oil from Alaska has GONE DOWN since 1988?
I really would like to know where you live right now, because if I did I would immediately call the cops and report that you're running a meth lab out of your address and that you are the biggest client.
Please don't encourage the dilution of the word "terrorist".
So you are saying demand has been going down since the 80s? I don't think that is correct.
It really is amazing how ignorant people are, isn't it? It's one big oil system, and one has to view it in its entirety. So, as you know, total world demand had been UP, not down. This, of course, will reverse.
Here's the real story, instead of the "Sky is Falling" story.
the main reason all the republican politicians promote drilling in the arctic is,
no one lives there.
So no one has to worry too much about the NIMBY effect, or even much about spills.
Its highly likely there's a lot more oil underneath Miami Beach ... but just try, try, try to get a permit to drill there .....
They promote drilling because big business wants more money. Nothing complicated about it at all.
They're fracking in populated areas. If there's enough money in it they'll do it, and they'll sell everyone else's grandmothers for it.
Fact-free post. Look people, this isn't rocket science, okay?
I just did a simple Google search on "oil reserves in florida" and one of the top posts in the results said in the summary that Florida is thought to have 100M barrels of crude -- and that's for the entire state, not just Miami Beach. Good enough for me, I have no attachments either way.
For the challenged in the audience that 100M represents just one week of US crude consumption if you had the whole 100M in your hands at once. Spread over the 10 years it would take to actually extract it, it comes out to more like 3 minutes of US domestic crude consumption out of each 24 hour day over those 10 years.
Three fucking minutes.
Looked at another way, 27K bdp from Florida every day for 10 years would move the entire rolling fleet of US private automobiles (if they all ran on the same day, which I bet they do) about 200 feet each day.
Yeah that's going to fucking save the entire fucking world, Sparky. 200 feet FTW fuck yeah Florida u rock!
People start to sound stupid around here. I think I somewhere have a sack of busted hammers with more sense than that. Can we just move on to real discussions about shit that matters?
Jee-zuz.
No problem getting any oil from under Miami. The Cubans are going to soon start drilling in their half of the 90 mile channel betwween Cuba and Key West. Should be easy to route some horizontal drilling up Miami way. Problem solved!
Two Problems:
Money- Excess reserves based on production, gone. Debts are not productivity reserves. Capitalization of long term projects like NG pipelines are not possible. Same for nuclear power. Money creation and investment fraud have divorced 'money' from the realm of common law. Money is based on trust, productivity and communication.
Oil-EROEI- 'Energy returned on energy invested' is more important than what's in the ground. I pointed out to a friend of mine in New Caledonia that the EROEI for Ethanol (2/1), tar sands (1.5/1), and the EROEI for Alaskan NG delivered to California are about the same, nearly 1/1. '1/1' is the magic breakeven point. The harder the fuel is to get the more debt capital it requires. Money is a cultural 'game' that requires everybody play by the rules. If the rules are disregarded, no money. No money, no long term low EROEI projects---then ergo no energy related productivity.
Also keep in mind the environmental disruption, it's not just an EROEI thing...
BTW - Ethanol at 2:1 is more than a bit iffy: depends on your feedstock; for sugar cane MAYBE 2:1, for corn it's more like 1-:1
American oil production is up one million bpd in the last two or three years. Gasoline demand is the lowest it has been in ten years. In the pre-manipulated world of commodities, supply and demand used to drive prices. Hey, Headless Horseman, how much is the Squid paying you to post this shit??
Don't ignore the growing oil demand from China and India. The average per capita oil use in China is maybe 10% of US per capita use? They sure are buying a lot of cars - more than in the US. Growing demand in India too. The days of US oil demand driving world supply and prices are over. Take off your US Centric blinders.
Ehm... Amerika is not the world, far from it....
Oops. Somebody got their days and their months mixed up. That's a chart of monthly production, not daily. Yes, Alaska did once produce 60 million bbls a month ( 2 million bbbls a day). Remember, if you are going to make a sporting post about how others are wrong and stupid, best to get your own facts straight.