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As Fracking Enters A Bear Market, A Question Emerges: Is The Shale Boom Built On A Sea Of Lies?
One of, if not the biggest contributors to the improving US trade deficit and thus GDP (not to mention labor market in select states) over the past several years, has been the shale revolution taking place on US soil, which has led to unthinkable: the US is now the biggest producer of oil in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia. Which is great today, but what about tomorrow?
It is here that problems emerge according to Bloomberg's snapshot of the shale industry. In "We're Sitting on 10 Billion Barrels of Oil! OK, Two", the authors look at the two-tiers of reporting when it comes to deposits that America's fracking corporations allegedly sit on, and find something unpleasant:
Lee Tillman, chief executive officer of Marathon Oil Corp., told investors last month that the company was potentially sitting on the equivalent of 4.3 billion barrels in its U.S. shale acreage. That number was 5.5 times higher than the proved reserves Marathon reported to federal regulators.
Such discrepancies are rife in the U.S. shale industry. Drillers use bigger forecasts to sell the hydraulic fracturing boom to investors and to persuade lawmakers to lift the 39-year-old ban on crude exports. Sixty-two of 73 U.S. shale drillers reported one estimate in mandatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission while citing higher potential figures to the public, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) Co.’s estimate was 13 times higher. Goodrich Petroleum Corp.’s was 19 times. For Rice Energy Inc., it was almost 27-fold.
Fracking 101: "Predicting how much oil can be pumped out of shale has been controversial since the boom began about a decade ago. Companies combined horizontal drilling with fracking, or hydraulic fracturing. Fracking involves blasting water, sand and chemicals into deep underground layers of shale rock to free hydrocarbons. Innovators such as Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) said that drilling vast expanses of oil-soaked rock formations is more predictable than the traditional, straight-down method of exploration. Regulators agreed and requirements were loosened starting in 2010."
Furthermore, as tech companies have non-GAAP to hide all the nasty "expense" stuff, energy companies rely on probable and possible.
Energy companies also lobbied the SEC to let them file more speculative estimates, known as probable reserves and possible reserves. Only three companies take that option, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rest report only proved reserves to the SEC and save their other estimates for public presentations, which the SEC doesn’t supervise.
Now the discrepancy between the two estimation methodologies is hardly new: every serious investors in the E&P space has known about the two-tier bookkeeping system for years. The problem, however, is well laid out by John Lee, one of University of Houston petroleum engineering professors for hire: "They’re running a great risk of litigation when they don’t end up producing anything like that. If I were an ambulance-chasing lawyer, I’d get into this."
The reason why no ambulances were chased for the past 6 years, ever since the shale boom truly took off, is that this roughly corresponds to the time when the Fed unleashed its QE on the world, and boosted stock prices to record levels across the board, including those of shale plays. As a result, since fracking investors saw their stocks also rise to record highs, they had no reason for complain, even if the surge in market cap may have had little to do with the actual underlying fundamentals, among which level of reserves, and everything to do with a very different type of liquidity, that emerging from the Fed's printer.
But now things are rapidly changing, the commodity space is getting, pun intended, fracked, E&P companies across the board are sliding, and as of today, the shale space just entered a bear market.
And since investors take to losses with far less enthusiasm and stoic patience than paper profits, artificial as they may have been, they will soon start looking for scapegoats. They will find these were right in front of their eyes. To wit:
Additionally, here is what the abovementioned ambulance chasers will be closely looking at in the coming weeks and months unless the shale stock plunge doesn't reverse quickly.
Marathon’s Tillman, who was speaking at the Barclays Plc CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York on Sept. 3, said there are “risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by” his comments. Many company presentations remind investors that publicly announced estimates are more speculative than the numbers the drillers file with the SEC.
Figures the company executives cite during presentations “are used in the capital allocation process, and are a standard tool the investment community understands and relies on in assessing a company’s performance and value,” said Lisa Singhania, a Marathon spokeswoman. The Houston-based company’s shares have risen 1.6 percent in the last year.
The SEC requires drillers to provide an annual accounting of how much oil and gas their properties will produce, a measurement called proved reserves, and company executives must certify that the reports are accurate.
No such rules apply to appraisals that drillers pitch to the public, sometimes called resource potential. In public presentations, unregulated estimates included wells that would lose money, prospects that have never been drilled, acreage that won’t be tapped for decades and projects whose likelihood of success is less than 10 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The result is a case for U.S. energy self-sufficiency that’s based more on hope than fact.
The SEC is keeping mum, realizing very well that it is suddenly sitting on the next powder keg:
Judy Burns, a spokeswoman for the SEC, declined to comment on what drillers say during investor presentations.
And this is where companies have gotten into hot water:
Many of the companies use their own variation of resource potential, often with little explanation of what the number includes, how long it will take to drill or how much it will cost. The average estimate of resource potential was 6.6 times higher than the proved reserves reported to the SEC, the data compiled by Bloomberg News show.
This is the E&P equivalent of annualized, pro-forma, adjusted EBITDA, a metric that is fully made up on the spot to exclude anything and everything and make the subject look more attractive. In other words, lipstick on a pig.
It is also known as the "Bill Gross effect": everything was great as long as he was making money. And then things all hell broke loose.
More:
Several companies, including Sanchez Energy Corp. (SN), don’t provide a total estimate. Instead, they publish variables such as the number of well locations and the estimated output from each one. Analysts often use these figures to independently compute the total. Even though Sanchez Energy provides the variables for analysts to calculate its resource potential, the Houston-based company doesn’t publish a total estimate. Executives debated whether to include one and decided against it, said Gleeson Van Riet, senior vice president for capital markets and investor relations.
In practical terms, the discrepancies are quite glaring:
The investor presentation by Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Rice Energy shows 2.7 billion barrels. Rice, which went public in January, reported 100 million barrels to the SEC in March, records show.
At Pioneer Natural Resources, the number they cite to potential investors has increased by 2 billion barrels a year in each of the last five years -- even as the proved reserves it files with the SEC have declined.
The rising number is “a game changer for this company,” said Sheffield, the CEO. “It’s a game changer for this country.”
Curiously, just like in the great Herbalife soa opera, the politicians are involved for one simple reason: they can collect lots of money to give their stamp of approval even if they really have no understanding or idea what they are vouching for.
Pioneer’s numbers aren’t misleading; they’re conservative, Sheffield said. He said he’s shared them with Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the Democratic chair and Republican ranking member, respectively, of the Senate energy committee.
“Obviously it’s helped us in regard to making headway on convincing people to lift the export ban,” Sheffield said. “We want to convince them that we have this great resource. We don’t want it trapped here in the U.S. That’s for the public, the administration and Congress. So if we’ve got this great resource, why don’t you allow us to export it?”
The message is getting through. While Landrieu said she favors more study, Murkowski said she supports ending the ban.
The one message that is not getting through, however, is that no matter if Obama endorses one reserve estimation metric or another, if and when the P&L crash comes, nobody will be able to stop the onslaught of lawsuits that will immediately hone in on the weakest link, which in this case is clearly the ambiguous and two-tiered public data.
Some are already getting a sense of which way the wind is blowing:
In August, Lee led a workshop in Houston on the best practices of reserves estimation. The audience in the ballroom of the Hotel Derek included engineers for shale drillers such as Marathon, Continental and Rice. Pamela Allen, a senior reserves coordinator for Marathon, raised her hand and told Lee that she was worried that using outsized forecasts in public presentations would run afoul of the SEC and “come back to haunt us.”
Singhania, the Marathon spokeswoman, said she was unable to comment on Allen’s remarks without seeing a transcript.
“If a lot of people get burned -- and I think a lot of people can and will be burned -- by these numbers in the investor presentations, there may be a push by investors to get the SEC to do something about it,” Lee said during the workshop.
Actually, considering the gross incompetence of the SEC, the corrupt, co-opted regulator (for hire) may do something... in just about a decade. In the meantime, the most vibrant US industry may go from boom to bust in a heartbeat, as soon as its is mired in litigation once shareholders realize that the stock gains of the past half-decade will not continue in perpetuity. One look at the shale index chart above and the alarm bells should be going off.
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Too much for to little.
Fracking Company Lies:
1. We will create local jobs.
2. We won't pollute the water.
3. We'll reduce dependence on foreign oil.
Sidenote:
I live in PA. Friend of mine, in Zelienople, is dealing with:
1. A local neighbor/town councilman, who sold them out, because his landscaping business got a sweetheart contract to mow lawns for the corporate offices.
2. Polllution that happens now, for supposed financial rewards that occur later - the wells were capped, meaning that: Nobody who signed up for this "deal" gets paid, until the wells produce. They cap the wells, the shale-oil companies get paid now. The people who signed-over their mineral rights don't.
3. Groundwater pollution.
Ain't business great? These motherfuckers ought to be hung upside-down by their balls, for causing long-term damage, in the name of short-term rewards....
"It's okay, because I got mine...who cares about what happens later"... <-- the mindset of the 'people' who run the show.
Fracking companies should have been made to put up performance bonds out to 30 years protecting against groundwater pollution.
Prolly superfund sites in the making.
Exactly.
They're fucking criminals, and they know it.
The High PE bleed has just started ...sell the rips
The shale "miracle" is more "hope" than "lies," but I guess one could argue, "what's the difference between 'hope' and 'lies?'."
OK explain to me why I should not invest in the South Sea Drilling and Fracking Company.
Thank current PA Gov. Next Gov wants to tax them. Might be too late.
They don't need to be taxed. The taxers are profiteering as well.
Who cares. Kim kardashian might go to a movie next week. /sarc
The estimates provided by companies to investors in public presentations are based on what is called downspacing, i.e. drilling additional wells in a section where a well has produced oil or gas and is considered economic.
The whole point of the shale oil & gas revolution is that these new methods have freed up otherwise "trapped" oil and gas. Traditional, conventional, drilling was mostly binary, hit or miss. Unconventional drilling is based on the concept that there are blanket shale (or tight rock, for the most part not previously targeted by the indsutry) formations across the country. These formations have been identified and delineated by drilling wells across a play, effectively triangulating productive areas. No acre is created the same, results vary, but the company takes into account these results and creates what are called type curves. These type curves estimate what an average well in any given area will produce. They are designed to be within a 10% margin of error by the petroleum engineers. History tells us that we have met or beat expectations set by petroleum engineers, primarily due to improvements in drilling and extraction technology.
Look up slickwater fracs, perf & plug vs. cemented liners, ceramic vs. sand proppant, various meshes, increased rates, etc. Look at EOG Resources, theres a reason they are the best in the game, they have good people and the best technology. This is a REAL technology game.
The only real variable is commodity pricing.
Companies have spent tons of time and money evaluating which are the most effective methods for extracting oil and gas. These numbers will likely only get better.
THE OIL IS IN THE GROUND, THAT WE KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE QUESTION IS WILL WE BE ABLE TO EXTRACT THE AMOUNTS THESE COMPANIES ARE QUOTING - my take is, we will.
"These motherfuckers ought to be hung upside-down by their balls, for causing long-term damage, in the name of short-term rewards...."
GMO Ebola will solve that.
50% 1st yr decline rates, ever increasing capital/wells on zirp debt to cover decline of existing wells, $100 oil/$5 gas must to continue. Massive damage to environment. millions of abandonment wells/problems. Real money is made when you discover large reseriors that will produce for many years, not a money funded, media hype. BTW all the economic areas were drilled years ago. $150/bbl oil and $10/mcf gas will trigger another run on uneconomic reservoirs. The smart money is off and out.
which part of "the US is now the biggest producer of oil in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia" are you people missing?
take that away and knock 0.5% off gdp and we're in a deeper depression than we already are.
So Hollywood/WS accounting is in the oil patch...what else is new
just add some Scotch to that tap water and stop b&*#in
this is Amerika d#$@mit
More lies? I am shocked, just shocked I tell you...
yes, the sound you here in the background are several underground tanks being filled with diesel fuel...
Obola gets 2 birds with one stone. Kill off domestic oil production and piss off the Russians. Saudi's are quite happy. We need moar solar subsidies.
Apparently you have not been reading the news on energy. The Saudi's are in full panic mode.They are as I write are requesting all of OPEC to reduce production NOW. Maybe you have NOT been keeping up with production and costs in the OPEC world. Now that almost all of OPEC has to use salt water injection, and separation which drives energy use and well as costs, they no longer have the margin for falling prices as they did even 10 yrs. ago. It could be that you are a paid TROLL, and I understand making a dollar when you can. But, we also reserve the right to call out your BS when we see it.
troll? if you say so, ignorant, probably. That doesn't justify a personal attack.
Don't harsh his buzz 'cuz he missed an article or two. Geez.
Great catch on the Saudis, btw. Any links to follow up? (Don't doubt you at all, just looking for more info)
The Saudi's are in full panic mode.They are as I write are requesting all of OPEC to reduce production NOW. Maybe you have NOT been keeping up with production and costs in the OPEC world.
It's pretty amusing, 'mericas bff uber ally Saudi arabia fighting it out with iran on oil! Cue iran being greatest threat in the known universe (again) in 3...2......
Australia & Canada (also run by idiots) betting the farm on high energy costs to pay for shit projects are also entertaining to watch. And it must be added, are also gallantly fighting des evil terrirsts with the saudis (anything to get those prices up)! If it wasn't so tragic it would make a great comedy. Ah fuck it, still makes a great comedy.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-10/iran-matches-saudi-oil-discount...
Can't get kicked off this sight no matter what I try...Oh well.....
The Saudis are happy with $90 Brent?..I doubt that...
The Saudi's can oulast it. The frackers can't.
The Saudis - as long as 'Yellen keeps printen'.
Lies and ZIRP.
It may be a sea of lies, but we had our longest lasting fracking quake this morning.
Technically it's the disposal wells that cause quakes. There were a couple south of Williston ND along the river also, which tells you everything you need to know.
Congratulations. Can you monetize that into a vacation destination?
I expected long ago every possible avenue to BTUs would be exploited no matter the cost to the environment. Starting right around the time Cheney said the sad clown show known as Amerikan Kar Kulture was not negotiable. Not in my backyard.
YES it is built on a sea of lies! More energy is used in the extraction than energy produced. Negative externalities are abundant. Companies are started, dupe their investors, take big paychecks, leave fouled water tables. Rinse, repeat, again.
North Dakota can now return to being a shithole that nobody wants to visit.
This article seems to talk about shale gas more than oil. How much if North Dakota is gas driven if I may ask? My company which operates a division in Southern saskatchewan minutes from the border I can tell you how much gas drilling is being done? Virtually none. At least for all the clients we either work for or try to work for. The only newsworthy item on gas there is that what was once flared intot he air is now set to be captured which is already fueling an increased construction boom.
Either way the important part of the equation is price. If the US as a coherent matter of policy ( same for canada for that matter ) gave a shit about natural gas development, they would be pushing it as a surface vehicle fuel more, and would already have export terminals all over the place ergo attaining a higher international price instead of our current price - AIDS on toast.
In summary - is this whole thing a lie propagated by financial talking heads. Just like everything - of course it is in some form.
Decline rates
You will admit, Fracking oil is NOT even close to West Texas Crude quality? If not, I am not sure I except your thoughts as fact. Clue, gallons of gasoline per barrel refined from Frack oil and WTC. The entire refinery complex through the mid-West had to be overhauled just to refine the best of the Frack oil. Why do you think they HAVE to export this Frack to countries that do NOT have air quality standards ha!
That may be the case for tar sands but ND crude is about as light and sweet as it comes, can actually run a motor off of it, I have seen it. Motor may not last forever but it works. Tar sands is sludge, I have a hard time imagining that they can even refine it into fuel and yet they do. How that stuff can move down pipelines without added bakken crude or some other fluid is beyond me.
Your comment about "frac oil" is completely unfounded and outright dumb. Oil quality varies from formation to formation, oil out of the Bakken happens to be extremely light and sweet, the easiest to refine...
I see the point you are trying to make, yes a lot of "Fracking oil" has less desireable qualities than traditional Texas light sweet and may be more difficult to refine. However, all oil reservoirs have different chemical properties and Bakken is consistant with light sweet crude. I imagine there are numerous reasons for them to export this oil abroad.
I was speaking in general, when I was a kid crude would crack 21.5 gallons of gasoline, now 17.5 is normal.
"The only newsworthy item on gas there is that what was once flared into the air is now set to be captured which is already fueling an increased construction boom."
A construction boom for collecting gas, that will diminish at the same or increased rates as the fracking well depletion rates.
What financial genius decided that investment was worth hundreds of millions of dollars?
Sell it to the pensions!
with a kickback...
So shale technology is a FAKE
Only the promised returns. It works at $100/bbl and ZIRP. There is a vast amount of oil that is economical at $200/bbl. Even more oil can be recovered at $400/bbl.. etc...
... and oil supply will last forever at $5,000/bbl ... wow we have solved the energy problem!
Haha, oil is at $85.80, today, right now.
Isn't it really the case that you must get more energy out than the energy you put in? Price really doesn't matter in the end, efficiency is the key.
WTI
WAS: $105 and going up.
IS: $85 and going down.
Frack'n Finance must be FRACKED by now !
It is like the .com crash, or the upcoming 10x NASDAQ leveraged crash.
The Fiat must flow...and if not, the flow based system collapses, since there is no capital...only virtual capital and future capitial (which both don't exist in reality).
When the Frack'd Oil is too expensive it will just stop being Frack'd and will stay in the ground.
The Byzantine finance and business of Frackn' must be very similar to Gold mining....keep the land and drilling rights and preserve the laws to get to it later.
The author is NOT saying Fracking tech. is a fake. He is saying the profitability is fake. Two very different arguments. NO one not even the most ardent Anti-facking groups deny fracking can drive previously UN-recoverable oil to the surface. The arguments are about BTUs/total energy recovered and known reserve quality. Just as with fermenting corn at a cost of 1.25 gallons of Ethanol to make 1.0 gallons of Ethanol. Without the price supports and government subsides, Ijust ask Tesla how they make their money) the whole idea is a failure if that is what this tech is about. To me this isn't really about how profitable the process is now, it's about when Gahwar stops producing. Without BTUs the whole Fracking mess goes up in flames, pun intended.
Only in Zero Hedgeland. In the real world, it's quite real.
The current entire system is built on a sea of lies.
And an underground sea of polluted water. But at least you can dispense with matches as flames come for free from your tap.
But then, the entire US economy is based on lies.
An underground sea of polluted water, which replaced an undeground sea of oil. Hello.
So if it was a sea of oil why the need for fracking?
Groundwater is not obtained from shale deposits.
That investment campaign doesn't start until January.
The Feds will start pre-marketing that meme in a few weeks.
iPhone 7 will have GT Advanced Technoloy glass, promise.
Avoid the rush, buy GATA stock today!
Saw one of the news shows where the talking head speculated that the drop in oil prices is due to the Saudis taking aim at the frackers. Drop oil to a price where fracking is uneconomical and force frackers to shut down.
Plausible, but I rather fancy the drop is due to 'incumbent election needs' since these short term drops always seem greatest just before elections. Voters seem happier when they have a few extra bucks and are more likely to vote 'incumbent'.
The drop in price is engineered by USA with SA for the Syrian pipeline tradeoff - USA agrees to go into Syria to knock off Assad and the USA gets lower price to upend Putin
The USA enormous increase in shale production that is based on financing being available is a house of cards - with regulators - SEC looking the other way - which is all set up to lower the price of oil worldwide for the same reason
the Frac house of cards will fall - as reserves cannot meet debt service but Putin will be destroyed - he is the prize - screw the debt holders and equity owners!
Fracking is exactly like dot com companies. Was the dot com bubble mostly bullshit? Yes. Did it contain real companies? Absolutely. Yahoo still exists, Google still exists, Amazon still exists. Fracking is a real industry with real money, but it shouldn't shock anyone when a bunch of companies end of going bankrupt.
Even the words used to describe fracking were similar. It's a revolution, this is a new age, this is the future, it's a new era. Same words used to describe cars, telephones, radio, TV, internet, social media, and various other new things.
It shock if you knew how many intentionally bankrupted.
And insurance fraud in oilpatch boom time.
15,000- 20,000 foot gas wells in western oklahoma in early 80's - used same promotional game for reserves - took out Penn Square Bank in OKC and then Continental Bank in Chicago and almost Chase Manhattan
dup good post
each time it is the same, only worse
Zerohedge publishes interesting and useful information but the spin on said info is often so negative that it might be more useful to have more posts with no comment!! It is not always the end the world!! This oil story is a good example. Often North Dakota newspapers publish the break even point for Bakken oil by county. I recall that break even was $40 or below. Oil today is at $85. But lets say oil drops to $40. That would be the best single boost to the United States economy one can think of!! Bring it!!
40? I thought it was 75
Most credible analysts agree 65-70 minimum
No way long term damages calculated in real...
Search Earthquakes in Oklahoma
Used to be extreme rare there.
Your statement that they used to be extremely rare there doesnt hold water.
What time frame are you comparing this to? The last 100 years of real scientific data?
I guess the geologic time scale is beyond your comprehension.
You kind like a AWG proponent. Looking at the last 100 years of scientific data does not correlate to the past 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 years of unrecorded history.
These small earthquakes in OK would never show up in the geologic record. There's no displacement in these events which would be recordable.
Go frack yourself.
useless talkings.
I am comparing before and after fracking.
Ask Oklahoma locals...especially Grant County, I was told (one direct, some heresay)
but there are many articles of this in real.
You overreactive
save your heart
Hiding operating costs within capex is commonplace.
True ND breakeven is at least $65-70.
There is lag time when burning investor money though....
when easy is gone and it catches up, boom is over
and many mess is left behind for others clean up..including taxpayers
some can't be fixed...frack legacy
The operators are bonded. If they don't clean up and P&A to the workmanlike state standard then their bond is forfeit to pay for the work and they are held to be suspect operators and essentially make the shit list, their other ops are watched closely by inspectors and the state oil & gas commission will nail them if they are cutting corners. They can even block their operations if necessary for cause.
You do lead a rich fantasy life, don't you?
no way $40 break even - especially for oil well w/ gas - operations eat you alive
Read it and weep, as only bad news brings chills down the spine of the Zerohedge crowd.... And how do you guys like Dow 16,700? Dow up about 5,000 since ZeroDoom predictred a crash.
http://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/breakeven-prices-in-us-sh...
Come on, IF you are in the industry and not a paid TROLL, then you know that price is not to the producer that price is to the customer, which is directly coupled to viability of wells drilled. Producers do not see 85$ a barrel and yes I know that. Because when you trade a oil contract WE BUY a rail car filled to 80% with produced oil at that amount. Please I know you need to make money, but rein in the BS please. You can make your argument without the over the top BS.
Hint, the handling costs to the car (from the car I pay for), insurance, freight, alone are killers that is why the producers get nervous about this level in CUSTOMER PAID PRICE. The same is true for coffee, all is wonderful until you fall to near .50$, then you leave the beans on the bush. Without Ethanol price support, CORN would not be profitable this year with near record harvests across the mid-West.
Breakeven is between $40-$50 depending on the frac process used. The breakeven is attached to the "well head" price, not the open market price. Gusher is correct and must have been in the Bakken, not sitting in an office or his moms basement. The doom and gloom about fracking in the Bakken does not apply like it does in gas shale. I am currently right now on a one well pad that has been producing steady for 21 months no problem.
You nailed it. I live in MN and travel to ND on biz every month. Thank God for ND oil as it is keeping Minnesota's unemployment rate lower than it would otherwise be.
I would like to se EOG's numbers. So did the smart companies lie to the SEC and the public?
Search earthquakes in Oklahoma
temporary low cost of capital plus over (mal) investment in the space equals a collasal bust on the horizon
Can't happen? Happens all the time.
Deloitte says lower crude prices will put $260/year into consumer's pockets.
COSTCO and Home Depot CEO's were chirping that it would come to them.
Do these numb nuts not know that $260 is less than 1 month of an ACA premium?
Meaningless chatter and a a whoppin 260 bucks=nothing.
Sadly, you are wrong for 80% of people who are the working poor. They will spend EVERY dime of that 260$. For me it will sit in a account that draws ZERO interest and my Credit Union will NOT use to make new loans. Sad state isn't it. My savings zero profit, (by design) and sad that it is the world to many. Sounds closer and closer to the developing and third world.
Fossil fuels may actually be an artifact off the past in not the not so distant future if this is for real.
http://www.e-catworld.com/2014/10/08/e-cat-report-released/
Very hopeful no surprise we don't read about this in the news!
I am sure that taping toilet paper tubes to a rolling pin was the missing step in cold fusion. The government will suppress this. You will never hear of it again because it is so awesome.
Ha! So true, just like the Hydrogen fuel cell people. Gee Whiz, look I can hook this power supply up to electrodes in water and make FREE Hydrogen to light this Bunsen burner. What he doesn't say, he spent .10$ in electricity costs to make that .05$ worth of Hydrogen energy ha! OH if only PHYSICS wasn't real and you couldn't measure process numbers ha! ITAR is close to a Micro second of power, Pico seconds, they have but who builds reactors on Pico seconds at a cost of REBUILD?
"ITAR is close to a Micro second of power, Pico seconds, they have but who builds reactors on Pico seconds at a cost of REBUILD?"
Bill Gates? Musk? With taxpayer subsidies?
As long as Wall Street issues the bonds . . .
Ahem ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/03/27/how-big-are-the-currently-k...
Stop being a wet noodle. You're spoiling the fun.
Shale is the subprime of energy. A bunch of hype that will never payoff as long as there is one normal working oil well.
Your statement I BELIEVE sums it up very well. UNLESS there is something far more devious going on? Is it possible as some returning from Saudi Arabia are saying Gahwar is no longer producing at a profitable rate? We already no that Cantarell in the Gulf has been falling at 8% yoy for this past decade. What other major reserves are not producing? When Mexico imports it's first barrel of crude the sun will still rise, but there won't be lights to turn off.
Is that why the Saudis invited a crapload of Nigerians to the Hajj this year?
Ebola - covers up a lot of shit.
I have never liked the concept of two sets of books. Fundamentally wrong in so many ways.
One of them always has Ebola.
U.S. natural gas production continues to set records even with fewer rigs than in 1998, thanks to advanced shale drilling
http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gas.jpg
Yeah thank God for the multi-pad wells or the overall production would have probably been coming down by now.
Q: Is the Shale Boom built on a sea of lies?
A: Of course, if it was so lucrative in the first place, why hasn't it been utilized before now?
Is the airplane built on a sea of lies?
Of course, if it was so great why wasn't it invented before 1903?
OMG that is funny
Airplanes - 1903-2015. RIP.
Ebola does that.
Yes, yes. Technology etc. etc. I'm sorry. I don't buy it. There is literally no other industry which could, historically, write a virtually blank check for R&D. Either fracking:
- Isn't going to produce the yielded reserves that are estimated.
- Isn't going to be as cheap as first plugged.
- Or is going to cause huge environmental costs and damage.
My guess is all three.
Fracking occurs at depths below the water table, in fact significantly below the water tables....everywhere.
That said, shoddy drilling operations that fuck up their oil stem casings, etc. will pollute it.
The solution is a fracking tracer, applied to each driller's "secret sauce" fracking fluid that doesn't impede the fluid's effectiveness, but will only be assigned to just that driller on just that well.
The way to accomplish this is with short-half life alpha and beta emitting radioisotopes that can be "sliced & diced" zillions of ways, with specific assignment to just that driller, on just that well, for just that period of time.
I'm sure Halliburton is all over that. For all the wrong reasons.
OTOH, adding more radioisotopes to the Northern Pacific at this time may be a hard sell, what with 95% of the ocean life having died off due to Fukushima.
Would the 'tracer' even be trackable with all the Fukushima radionuclides in the water, with 100,000 gallons or more being added daily?
Don't forget clathrates .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2013/04/petroleum-price-and-clathrates.htm...
Shale gas was always just a stopgap .
And Japan is desperate . Don't be surprized if they switch to FuehrerPrinzip economics and insist that others share their co-prosperity .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2009/10/fuehrer-prinzip.html
See also (just for the hell of it)
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2014/03/underwater-lightning.html
1
http://winteractionables.com/?p=15471
"The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will resume issuing oil and gas leases next year for federal lands in California after a new study found limited environmental impacts from fracking and other enhanced drilling techniques, the agency said Thursday."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/28/california-oil-dril...
And this:
'Fracking Waste is Being Dumped Into the Ocean Off California’s Coast'"According to the Center for Biological Diversity, oil rig operators have federal permits to dump more than nine billion gallons of fracking wastewater into California’s ocean waters each year. That’s enough wastewater to fill more than 100 stadiums the size of the Rose Bowl brim-full of toxic waste."
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/fracking-waste-is-being-dumped-into-t...
Fracked gas wells don't produce high volumn very long and then they have to drill another ... like 40% gone the first year.
Fracking is meant to do a number of things. Make a quick sawbuck. Poison the water table and environment so that the mega corps can get paid to clean it up and force you to buy their products like water. They do claim that you do not have a human right to water after all. And finally, kill anyone that tries to hinder or avoid 1 & 2
Welcome to planet satan. Where
Love is Hate
Poison is Health
And Ignorance is Bliss
with her allegedly enlightened servants Global Governments, Global Corporations and a myriad of complicit traitors constantly committing crimes against humanity
Injecting high-pressure bullshitonium between every line of those balance sheets! We'll frack some more profit out of those paperz yet.
I propose the the use of a high pressure fracking fluid enema be used on all proponents of shale oil.
Cheap energy & clean water. Hey, is this America or what? Good article. Thanks
That the fracking ponzi was about to collapse was obvious when commercials for own your own oil well (for accredited investors only, of course) started to hit the neocon owned AM radio stations about a year ago.