Category: Shale Oil

(Photo: Oil pump east Eagle Frod, K Aleklett) Lower 48 production The US Energy Information Administration, EIA, has now made a first forecast of the production of oil from the lower 48 states, the states with fracking. As the decline for individuate wells are very steep the rig count will be a very important factor for the future and the number of new wells each rig will drill per quarter. In the figure you can see that the number of rigs will drop down to 1300 and not came back to the level it had in the 4th quarter of 2014. We have seen peak rig count for shale oil in the US. EIA indicate a peak production in 2015 but hope the production will come back. This is just guesses and the price of oil will determine this. The decline in the existing wells might be so large […]

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URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136975/Fracking_Moratorium_Voted_Down_in_Colorado_Town The Board of Trustees of Erie, Colorado voted against imposing a moratorium on fracking in the Front Range town Tuesday evening. In the video-streamed event, the seven-member board consisting of the Mayor, the Mayor Pro-Tem and five trustees cast four votes against the one-year moratorium. Representatives from Encana Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. were present for the meeting, as were industry groups and a number of local residents who were for and against the moratorium. Memorandums of understanding (MOU) agreements between the two drillers and the township of Erie will continue. The agreements “contain best management practices the operators agree to use and are included as part of their state drilling permits,” according to a Jan. 27 story in the Denver Post. The moratorium was said by the Board of Trustees not to be seen as a vote against drilling in the area, but rather as a […]

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(Bloomberg) — Oil prices will recover as early as the first half of this year as producers cut back, Continental Resources Inc. founder and CEO Harold Hamm said Wednesday. Hamm said Continental, the largest leaseholder and producer in the Bakken shale play of North Dakota and Montana, can weather low crude prices “forever” as it idles wells. He expects other drillers to cut spending by 50 to 75 percent, in line with Continental’s announced reductions. “A lot of people think, well, if you start drilling, you’ve got about a six-month process before you can slow down,” Hamm said in an interview at the Argus Americas Crude Summit in Houston. “Wrong. Because after all, you drill that well, it takes about a month to drill it, or 25 days. You don’t have to complete it.” Spending at Oklahoma City-based Continental will fall by 41 percent to $2.7 billion in 2015 […]

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(Bloomberg) — Kinder Morgan Inc., the world’s largest pipeline company by market value, is proposing a link that would give the ultra light oil from Texas fields a second path out of the country. The Houston-based company is marketing a pipeline that would be capable of carrying 200,000 barrels a day of oil and 100,000 of ultra light crude known as condensate to central California from Texas, Tom Martin, president of Kinder Morgan’s gas pipelines, said in a presentation on Wednesday. From there the condensate could move to Asia, where petrochemical plants are boosting demand for lighter oil. Condensate has emerged as one of the few exceptions to a four-decade ban that keeps most crude from leaving the country. Federal regulators have been issuing rulings since last year allowing companies to send the processed oil abroad from the Gulf Coast. The proposal is a resurrection of Kinder’s previous plan […]

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WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) – North Dakota’s oil industry is pushing to change the state’s radioactive waste disposal laws as part of a broad effort to conserve cash as oil prices tumble. The waste, which becomes slightly radioactive as part of the hydraulic fracturing process that churns up isotopes locked underground, must be trucked out of state. That’s because rules prohibit North Dakota landfills from accepting anything but miniscule amounts of radiation. The most common form of radioactive waste is a filter sock, a mesh tube resembling a sandbag through which fracking water is pumped before it’s injected back into the earth. Tank and pipeline sludge are also radioactive. It’s not clear how much of this waste is generated, as North Dakota officials only began requiring tracking last year; final 2014 reports aren’t due until next month. Some put the number at 70 tons per day; others say 27 tons. […]

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U.S tight oil production from shale plays will fall more quickly than most assume.  Why?  High decline rates from shale reservoirs is given. The more interesting reasons are the compounding effects of pad drilling on rig count and poorer average well performance with time.   Rig productivity has increased but average well productivity has decreased. Every rig used in pad drilling has approximately three times the impact on the daily production rate as a rig did before pad drilling.  At the same time, average well productivity has decreased by about one-third.  This means that production rates will fall at a much higher rate today than during previous periods of falling rig counts. Most shale wells today are drilled from pads.  One rig drills many wells from the same surface location, as shown in the diagram below. (click image to enlarge) The Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas is one of the […]

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In mid-January, when the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources released its latest update on the Bakken oil boom—the “Director’s Cut,” a summary compiled by the Department’s Director, petroleum engineer Lynn Helms—I was surprised by the data. But I wasn’t the only one surprised. In presenting the latest data, through November 2014, Helms explained that the state had reached “record oil production—but just barely record oil production, not really a significant increase.” Looking at the history, oil production has been pretty much the same in September, October, and November. It looks like oil production is flatlining in North Dakota—and hence, in the Bakken shale. The bigger surprise came with the data on the pace of activity in North Dakota. The Director’s Cut gives statistics that show how fast the oil boom is going, including how many drilling permits the state issued and how many drilling rigs were active. One […]

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Data from North Dakota show the number of rigs in service off from their 2012 peak. (UPI/Shutterstock/Lilac Mountain) BISMARCK, N.D., Jan. 26 (UPI) — Data released Monday by the North Dakota government show the number of drilling rigs in active service down nearly 25 percent from the 2012 peak. Government data show 156 active rigs operations in the state as of Monday, a 16 percent decline from this date in 2014 and 22 percent lower than the historic peak recorded Jan. 26, 2012. Most of the rig activity was recorded in Williston County, host to the Bakken and Three Forks shale oil formations. The low price for crude oil is forcing energy companies to cut back on spending. Oil services company Baker Hughes last week said the number of rigs actively engaged in exploration or production was down 43 week-on-week, a sign the industry in general is starting to […]

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Williston Basin Rig Map in 2013 The Bakken-Three Forks rig count decreased by eleven  to 152 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. In their weekly rig update, Baker Hughes reported that the Bakken’s decline is part of the overall plunge in U.S. oil and gas rig counts that are down by 49 to 1633. Declines were seen in all rig types: DIRECTIONAL 6 (-6) HORIZONTAL 144 (-8) VERTICAL 1 (-2) Most alarming to our readers is that Williston saw the biggest drop in the entire country and is showing the lowest numbers in four years. James Williams Williams, president of energy consulting company WTRG Economics commented to Bloomberg that,  “The Bakken was late to join the others leaving the party. It’s a high-cost producer with some of the lowest oil prices in the country.” COUNTY LAST WEEK THIS WEEK LA SALLE 34 33 […]

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